Return Of the King
by thatdamfangirl23
Summary: Merlin has almost given up hope after a vengeful Morgana ruled over Camelot for centuries. Arthur never did return. But, one day, his hope is restored when he finds a boat with a person on it. A breathing person. A person who looks remarkably like Arthur Pendragon.
1. Chapter 1

**This is actually written by my friend who doesn't have an account so I said I would post it. To be honest, I've been wanting to write something like this too so it will be fun. I'm going to be doing some stuff along with a couple of other people who have varying degrees of interest in Merlin (as in one of them loves it but has no fanfic experience and one of them hardly knows it but writes quite a bit). Anyway, hope you enjoy this!**

Merlin sat underneath an ancient, twisted tree on the shore of lake Avalon crying, as he did every year on the anniversary of Arthur's death at the battle of Camlann over 1000 years ago. His head swimming with the memories of those who he had loved and lost: Arthur, Gwen, sir Lancelot, sir Gwaine, sir Percival, sir Elyan, Gaius and many more, so many he couldn't even count. He was the only one left; the rest were just around in legend.

They had all died leaving just him alone. Merlin was immortal and still looked very young but he was over 1000 years old and had been waiting for his King to return when Albion was in its time of need. At the present moment Albion seemed like it was in a great time of need but Merlin had given up hope a long time ago.

After Arthur's death, Camelot had been peaceful for many long, glorious years under Queen Guinevere's reign, Merlin had decided that he could no longer hide his magic from her and at his request she lifted the ban on magic and all people had lived in peace and prosperity until her death when one of the bloodiest wars in history began over who would rule next because Gwen never remarried and never had an heir. The war was won by Merek, a cruel and evil man who persecuted magic users and began the second great purge. Merlin had barely escaped with his life but unfortunately some incredibly powerful sorcerers had decided that there was only one way to deal with him. They found Morgana's body and raised her from the dead, but the magic was too powerful for them and though the spell worked, they all died in the process. Morgana had killed Merek then started a rule of cruelty never before seen in Camelot, she had invaded all 5 of the kingdoms and joined them to create one kingdom ruled by her and had oppressed people without magic while elevating those who had magic to higher statuses so that no one could or would rise against her and succeed though over the years many had tried, she had suppressed science and technology so the kingdoms had barely changed in that way since Arthur's time.

To avoid her finding him, Merlin had fled north and hidden on a tiny Island far away from any form of civilization but every year he made the perilous journey down to the lake of Avalon, which he had hidden from Morgana by magic so that she could never poison it with her magic and would not be able to guard it.

Looking up briefly to gaze at the wide expanse of cool, clear water before him, he saw something flicker out of the corner of his eye. Merlin looked again, his eyes brimming with tears, across the lake that was usually has calm and clear as glass and saw a small black speck on the horizon. He jumped to his feet and ran down to the water, he didn't dare to hope but the thought that this could be Arthur's return cut through his mind like a well sharpened knife. The speck was closer now and moving closer. Merlin strained his eyes and, with his heart pounding like a drum saw a boat. A small wooden boat. The same boat that he had put Arthur in all those years ago. Was it possible that Arthur was returning to save Camelot after all these years?

The boat grew steadily larger until it was fairly close to the shore, which was when Merlin, unable to keep the anticipation at bay, splashed into the water and grabbed hold of the prow of the boat and pulled it to the stony shore.

Turning, Merlin finally glanced into the boat and saw what he had longed to see for so many years; Arthur dressed in the same clothes and armour he had worn on the fateful day of his death. He look exactly like he had done then except his fatal wounds had gone, and the slight rise and fall in his chest told Merlin that he was breathing. The once and Future king had returned.

**There you go - Arthur is back! Also, yes. The title is a LOTR reference. I couldn't help myself.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here is the second chapter. I thought I may as well upload it. Hope you enjoy!**

**Also, because I forgot last time, disclaimer: The BBC owns Merlin.**

Arthur opened his eyes; he was lying in a wood staring straight up at the trees. The merry sound and smell of a fire crackling was nearby. Groggily, he thought back to what he could remember which wasn't much. He had been dying, he was sure of it but here he was alive and completely unharmed. What on earth had happened?

Something moved behind him. It was Merlin "Sire you're back" he exclaimed.

"Back from what you clotpole? I've been here all the time" Arthur replied "Now let's return to Camelot" Merlin's face fell. Arthur didn't know what had happened since his death, not even that he had died.

"Erm Arthur"

"What" the king replied irritably

"I need to tell you something, you might want to sit down"

"Why"

"Just sit Ok. I'll explain"

The king sat he didn't want to waste any time arguing, he wanted to get back to Camelot and see his beloved Gwen.

"Do you remember what I told you about my magic?"

"I remember a dream I had where you told me you had magic but it was only a dream, I mean you can't possibly have magic, you're far too much of an idiot, and you don't have the brain"

Merlin took a deep breath "That wasn't a dream I really do have magic, in fact I'm the most powerful warlock, that has ever lived, I was born with magic, though with Morgana in charge I have had to hide my powers for years and do very limited magic." to prove his point Merlin muttered some words, his eyes glowed eerily gold and the smoke from the fire took the form of a beautiful warhorse with flowing mane and tail which proceeded to gallop around Arthur's head. For the time being, Merlin decided not to tell Arthur about Balinor, the fact the druids called him Emrys and about being a dragonlord. He figured that those pieces of information may just confuse the king; he had just been brought back to life after all and adjusting would be very difficult and take time so Merlin didn't want to overload him with information.

"Merlin" the king shouted, "You have had magic all this time and you never thought to tell me about it"

"I was scared ok, your father hated magic so I was worried you would tell him and he would execute me, then I was never able to tell you when you were king besides you also made your stance on magic pretty clear after that sorcerer who tried to heal your father failed and he died"

"What do you mean were, I still am king aren't I? I haven't been asleep for that long surely"

"Actually Arthur" Merlin said frowning, "You have been dead for over 1000 years, in fact you are now just a fireside legend told to children."

He then began to explain the many events had happened since Arthur's death.

Arthur remained silent until Merlin mentioned Gwen's death at which point he started crying.

"Gwen" He muttered softly "I'm so sorry I never came back, I should have come back"

The rest of the explanation past with very few interruptions. When Merlin had finished they both stared into the fire reliving their past battles.

"So" said Arthur "I've been dead for over 1000 years, everyone I knew is dead except for you and Morgana, and you are one of the most powerful warlocks that has ever lived"

"Yes, I know it sounds a bit strange"

" A bit strange, a bit strange? I think it's a bit more than strange, unbelievable is a better word. Also am I supposed to know how we defeat Morgana because at the moment I have no flippin clue."

"Well you're here which means you are going to help us bring down Morgana and you will be king again instead"

"Yes but how also what do you mean by us"

"When Morgana became Queen she started to persecute people without magic, I created a small group of rebels made up of magic and non-magic people but there are very few of us now, most were killed by Morgana but I'd say there are roughly 100 of us. They are hidden on a remote Island that people who don't know it's there can't see which is why some of us have survived "

"So it's me, you and 100 men against what?"

"Morgana and the armies of all 5 kingdoms together which is… a lot of men"

"Not great odds then." Arthur got up and kicked a large oak tree with a howl of pain and frustration. If only he had the Knights of Camelot with him. "Hang on Merlin, if I'm back then aren't the Knights"

"I'm afraid not or I don't know about them coming back the prophecies only mentioned your return but it is not impossible that the knights and maybe even Gwen might return the only problem is most of them are buried under Camelot in the crypt."

"I want to see them"

"Sire that's impossible, it's practically suicide. Camelot is Morgana's capital city, she lives there most of the time and it's crawling with her followers, it is also highly likely that she has magically sealed of the crypts in case you came back."

"I want to see them; I don't care how dangerous it is." Arthur said "how long to Camelot?"

"A couple of days but we only have 1 horse"

"Well then I'll ride and you can walk"

"Ok then sire" Merlin muttered he was too relieved that Arthur had returned to argue but he had gotten used to his newfound freedom over the last couple of hundred years and he wasn't sure how he was going to adjust to being a servant again, he hoped that has Arthur now knew about his magic then maybe he might be able to stop being a servant but for now it was back to obeying orders once more.


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's the next chapter. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: non of the people working on this story own Merlin or anything to do with it. I would try to come up with something witty and amusing to put now, but I'm in the middle of a Terry Pratchet book and my confidence in my ability to tell good jokes has gone down significantly. (Not that I ever had any anyway.)**

They had been moving for a couple of uneventful hours when Arthur heard a noise. "What was that?"

"What was what" Merlin asked but he needn't have bothered as a group of thieves dressed in filthy rags ran down the slope towards them.

"Merlin! Look out" Arthur said reaching for his sword only to realise that it wasn't there.

Soon they were encircled but has one of the thieves stepped forward Merlin yelled some words that Arthur didn't recognise, his eyes glowed gold again and every single thief flew through the air and landed against the surrounding trees with a sickening, bone crunching thud that resonated through the wood.

"Good thinking" Arthur said has he dismounted "This is yet another reason why you should have never hidden your magic, imagine how useful it would have been all those times we were attacked"

"If I didn't know you better I'd say that was a compliment and for your information I did use magic plenty of times during our adventures it was just in very small amounts and you never noticed. I swear you and the knights were practically blind, also it doesn't feel fair to kill with magic, I only did it then out of necessity." retorted Merlin while checking that all the thieves were definitely dead. If even one was not the word could easily reach Camelot that they had been there and that Arthur was back. Morgana had put posters up all over Camelot which showed a picture of Arthur so that if he ever returned, which Morgana herself highly doubted, he would be recognised and word would be sent to her immediately.

"Not fair, they would probably have killed us Merlin. Oh and Merlin, we really need to find me a sword or a bow or something"

"Well check the bodies their bound to have some sort of weapon and they won't need it now"

"Here's one" said Arthur picking up a long, well used sword with several notches in its blade "It's not as good as swords forged in Camelot or Excalibur but it will have to do, there seems to be no better weapons here"

When they had checked that all the men were dead they set off again in the general direction of Camelot. As he rode Arthur noticed that the woods had changed a lot since he was alive, it felt much older the trees seemed to be crammed together in a much more ominous way, there no longer seemed to be a path for them to follow." Merlin, I'm sure these woods used to be busier and brighter"

"When Morgana became Queen she allowed magical creatures to roam free in these woods, as you know not all creatures of magic are good so now most people are too terrified to set foot in them. The wood acts like a sort of barrier making it harder to escape Camelot and hide from the Queen only a few people such as myself and those thieves dare to enter them, the thieves probably only did because it is a way of making a living and I only do it occasionally."

"What about the people who lived in the villages like Ealdor"

"They all fled and now most people live in the cities like Camelot, Morgana is a cruel ruler but the cities offer protection"

"And your mother?" inquired Arthur, who then immediately regretted it when he saw Merlin's face fall and saw that he was struggling not to cry. "I'm sorry I shouldn't have asked"

"No, it's alright" Merlin knew he was going to have to tell someone but he didn't think it would be like this," She died during a raid on Ealdor by bandits only a few months after your death, Gwen saved as many people as she could but," He stopped there, he could not bring himself to say it: to say that he was too late and that she had died in his arms.

"I'm so sorry" said Arthur and for once it sounded genuine. "I did not know your mother well but she was a kind and brave person"

"Thank you, you never get used to losing people and knowing that you will outlive everyone you know after a while you grow scared to get attached to anyone because you know you will lose them."

"It must have been hard" Arthur sympathised "But anyway I'm back now and hopefully the others may come back too and we can restore Albion to its former glory"

"I really hope so, I hate to say this but I've actually missed you over the last few centuries"

"You don't really mean that though Merlin, you are such a girl's petticoat!" said Arthur in an attempt to cheer his old friend up.

This continued for quite some time until the trees started to thin out which Arthur took to mean that they were getting towards the end of the wood. Merlin had said that they needed to be quite and watch out for the regular patrols of Morgana's men. They found a secluded clearing and made camp for the night.

Merlin tied the horse to a tree and gave it some food.

"Good, now go and collect firewood, I trust you remember how to do that?" said Arthur imperiously

"Yes sire." Merlin rolled his eyes, his feelings of sentimentality towards Arthur had vanished and he was back to being Merlin the servant again rushing about after the king.

When Merlin came back with firewood floating behind him (a much easier way of carrying firewood) Arthur had at least cleared a space for a fire and caught a rabbit for them to cook.

"Not forgotten everything I see then." said Merlin which earned him a friendly punch on the arm.

As the rabbit cooked they discussed how they were going to get into Camelot.

"When we are in there please can we go to the library, we may find books which contain on how to wake Gwen and the Knights, as far as I know Morgana kept the library intact and restored it after destroyed many of the books."

"We should go there first then but the bigger question is how we are even going to get in, I mean I've been dead for 1000 years so most people won't recognise me but people may recognise you."

"I don't want to risk anyone seeing either of us, if word gets back to morgana about are appearances she will probably put two and two together and realise that you have returned also she created posters of you just in case you did."

Soon the rabbit was cooked and they sat in silence as they ate. Arthur and Merlin were ravenous and within minutes there was nothing left of the rabbit but a pile of bones which were then buried along with the ashes of the fire in case anyone found them and grew suspicious.

After they had cleared away with Arthur actually helping for once, they sat and watched the bats fly overhead: hunting for insects as they thought of a way to enter Camelot unseen. Just when Arthur was thinking about going to sleep Merlin jumped up and yelled "I've got it" and ran towards the horse where he began to rummage through the saddle bags until he brought out a book. It was ancient and leather bound with well-worn pages and appeared to be written in a different language which Merlin could apparently read. He quickly flicked through the pages until he came to the spell he wanted.

"During Gwen's reign I had free access to all the books in Camelot on magic and I found his book by . It is very old but has been preserved by magic and contains many extremely useful spells so I keep it with me at all times. I think this spell of invisibility may help you to get into Camelot but I cannot sustain it for long nor can I use it on both of us at once, so I will use an aging spell and hopefully we should be able to gain access to the Library at night."

"You seem to have this whole thing figured out then, except if we do manage to wake Gwen and the others, how the hell are we going to get them safely out of Camelot without Morgana finding out."

"We could use the dungeons, they're not much used anymore because Morgana built a great, impenetrable fortress on the Isle of the Blessed which she uses has a prison since the Camelot dungeons aren't the most secure. Come on I mean anyone with magic can just walk right out, besides Morgana isn't expecting the Knights of the Round Table to be woken so she won't be prepared."

"What if the answer isn't in the Camelot library books?"

"Then I guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it but tonight I think we need to get a good night's sleep, tomorrow's going to be a busy day. I'll take first watch."

**Hope you liked it. Please review if possible - feedback is like cookies to a writer. We thrive on it and it's nicer with chocolate chips. **

**That makes no sense.**


	4. Chapter 4

***insert witty comment here***

**Disclaimer: The BBC owns Merlin.**

The next day was chilly. Arthur woke Merlin just before dawn having taken over the watch a few hours previously.

Has Merlin groaned and struggled to get up Arthur couldn't resist yelling "Rise and shine" just as Merlin used to in the good old days.

"Hey!" snapped Merlin "That's my line, but it's good to see you awake at this time, you used to sleep to mid-afternoon some days, lazy git."

"Hey, I may have been dead for over 1000 years but I'm still your king and you have no right to call me a lazy git thank you very much"

"Sorry" retorted Merlin

"Ok, now how are we going to hide the horse if someone comes past?"

"Simple." Merlin muttered a few words and the horse and all its tack shrunk to the size of a shrew which merlin then proceed to place in a box with plenty of holes in it as well as some food and water, this box he then hastily shoved into his pack. He also walked back a little way and removed all trace of the horse's hoof prints.

When he came back Arthur said "You mean to tell me that you can shrink a horse to the size of a mouse but you can't sustain an invisibility spell for a long period of time this magic of yours seems to be a bit temperamental if you ask me."

"Well no one asked you did they, the reason I can't sustain the invisibility spell is because it has to work on a lot of people: it isn't exactly invisibility it's more that has soon as someone has seen you they will forget you so I have to trick lots of peoples brains into thinking that you are not there and never have been there, it also means that you will have to stay very close to me as the father away you are the weaker the spell gets and the harder it is for me to keep it up."

"Ok I get it." said Arthur not understanding at all "But how are you going to hide, you mentioned using an aging spell?"

"Oh yes." During the time since Arthur's death, Merlin had had a lot time to practise magic and he could now use an aging spell to make himself look roughly around 50. This was useful because both Arthur and Morgana had met his 80 year old form and he did not wish to be recognised as that particular sorcerer, especially in front of Arthur.

First Merlin told Arthur to stand in front of him and then said the words of the spell in a loud clear voice and Arthur vanished where he stood. As the creator of the spell, if Merlin tried hard enough he could see him but no one else, unless they knew he was there would never be able to spot him.

"Did it work, I can still see myself"

"Of course it did you clotpole, you are hardly going to forget that you exist you're way to bid headed for that, now wait a moment while I sort myself out." He closed his eyes and concentrated as he said the words, the Arthur gasped, Merlin now had a beard and wrinkles and looked almost unrecognisable from his 20 something year old self.

"Wow you look old, that's amazing."

"Thanks but you had better shut up because a voice coming from thin air is sort of suspicious."

"Ok, no suspicious thin air talking got it."

"Also be prepared Camelot has changed a lot in the last 1000 years and will be very different from how you remember it."

"Oh well I expected that it would have changed."

"Right let's go." they headed of towards the edge of the wood and onto a dusty road which headed over the grassland and towards Camelot which was now visible in the distance.

Arthur gasped at his first sight of Camelot. He could tell Merlin was right even at this distance. Camelot had changed a lot. The once majestic towers were now sad and forlorn their walls a maze of cracks and moss the city walls were crumbling in places and the city seemed to be oozing out of the gapes with shelters and tents and children running around in dirty rags. Several bonfires were lit both inside and outside the town their smoke mingling with the clouds high above and giving the place an ominous atmosphere quite unlike the Camelot he knew which was friendly and welcoming.

When they reached the gates, their way was barred by two guards dressed in black and with grim, leering expressions. Arthur held his breath but Merlin was right and the guards didn't appear to notice him. "Halt, who are you and what is your business in Camelot" one guard sneered.

"I am only a farmer from an outlying village. I am coming to visit my family."

"What's in the bag" Merlin hesitated for a moment they took off his pack. The guard opened it but inside was only a few clothes; all trace of anything magical had vanished.

"Very well you may enter." and the guards stepped back and allowed them to pass through the gates.

If Arthur thought the outside of Camelot looked horrendous, the inside was even worse. The streets were crowded and noisy. Layers of grime and filth carpeted the streets and the air stank of smoke, decay and disease. On the sides of the street, Arthur was horrified to see, people were begging for food. He wanted to stop and help them but as Merlin explained later, you can't help everybody not even if you wanted to.

They wove their way deeper into the decrepit town until they came to a grubby tavern, while Merlin negotiated for a room, Arthur took the opportunity to look at the taverns other occupants. They all looked pretty rough and he didn't like the look of them. He noticed a dog eared poster nailed to the wall which showed an image of his face with the words: If you see this man alert the city guard immediately, plastered underneath, he was thankful that Merlin had made him invisible, he didn't want to take his chances with this lot.

When Merlin had finished his interaction with the unfriendly and quite frankly dangerous landlord they were lead up a rickety ancient staircase and into a room which was more of a broom cupboard to be honest where they were left to unpack and rest.

"Well this is fun" grumbled Arthur "There's barely enough room to swing a goblin let alone practise magic in here."

"Keep your voice down idiot" Merlin hissed "you never know who's listening"

"How did you do that thing with the bag and the guards earlier?"

"Simple, those looking in my bag without knowledge of what's inside only what I want them to see"

"Wow cool." replied Arthur sitting on the single straw filled mattress then leaping up with a yell of surprise, he could have sworn he felt things moving under the thin sheets. Gingerly, he picked up the sword he had taken from the bandits and torn open the sheet to reveal that the Mattress was literally crawling in bugs."Ewwwwwww!" he hissed as Merlin burst out laughing "I am not sleeping on there."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin and neither does anyone else contributing to this story.**

**Enjoy!**

They had decided to wait until nightfall before entering the library so there would be less chance of someone spotting them. While they were waiting Merlin told Arthur all about Gwen's reign and the golden age of Camelot, about all the knights' lives and more about the great Dragon. Arthur listened intently and was incredibly proud of his Queen; she had ruled the kingdom well.

At last night fell and they crept down the creaky tavern stairs and watched by the people in the bar, they made their way into the bustling city night. Arthur was still invisible so it wasn't hard for Merlin to stay fairly hidden in the shadows. Undisturbed they made their way to the Library but when they got there, to their dismay they found the doors guarded and locked. They hid behind the corner and tried to work out how they were going to do now.

"What are we going to do now?" Arthur said in an exasperated whisper.

"Shut up, I'm trying to think."

There was a pause for a couple of seconds before "I've got it!"

"Got what?"

"Worked out how we are going to get in you idiot. You remember how I shrunk the horse back at the camp?" Arthur nodded "well what if I shrunk us even smaller, small enough to get under the door."

"That could work."

"The only problem is that I will have to make you visible before I can perform the magic." His eyes glowed gold, Arthur felt a tingling sensation spread across his body and reasoned that he must now be visible. Then Merlin said some words in a strange sounding language and his eyes flashed gold. The world then seemed to grow much bigger, rapidly buildings turned into mountains so large you couldn't see the summit , the flagstones beneath their feet became hills and the channels between was a path. Merlin was thankful that it hadn't rained in days otherwise they would have been washed away.

"Wow this is amazing!" Arthur said next to him, "I now know how an ant feels."

"Oh shut up we need to be quick or the spell will wear of before we have chance to get inside." They ran down the path for what felt like years, Arthur wondered how a journey that would have only taken a few steps before now took ages. Eventually they walked past 4 walls of what Arthur assumed to be the guards boots and towards the gaping tunnel that was the gap underneath the great double doors of the library. They walked into the darkness and out again into a dimly lit, cavernous room. There didn't appear to be anyone there so merlin muttered the growing spell and there was a glitter of gold in his eyes, then the world seemed to shrink around them and they were normal sized again.

Now he had a proper view of the room Arthur saw that it was packed with books, not only on the many book but piles of books from floor to ceiling. Merlin walked over to the doors and checked the lock and hinges, both were incredibly rusty and covered in cobwebs. "Looking at the state of the door no one comes in here so we won't be disturbed, it's not like most people can read anyway." Arthur walked carelessly over to a bookcase and started to pull books off the shelves at random. "Stop, what are you doing?"

"Looking for a book on magic what does it look like I'm doing?"

"You won't find any books on magic there. They were all hidden during the first great purge, over here." He said walking over to an ordinary book case and felt along the side, there was a click then the case creaked forward with a groan.

Inside was a circular room stuffed with books. They were heaped from floor to ceiling and seemed to almost hum in the musty silence. "Wow, all these books on magic were here all this time?" questioned Arthur thinking back to all the times that he and the knights had searched the library on his father's orders and had never found a trace of anything magical. Now he knew why.

Merlin nodded "No one but me can open that book case so no one else can find them."

"It's hardly surprising that we never found anything when we searched for magic."

Merlin smiled in a secretive way, "To be honest you only ever found things by accident, there were many magic books hidden in mine and G- Gaius's chambers but you never found them." He hesitated before saying Gaius's name. He had died of old age during Gwen's reign but even after all this time his death still felt like a new wound. It was like losing his father all over again but worse because Gaius was also his teacher, mentor and support. When he died Merlin had refused to see anyone for a month only coming out after Gwen begged him because they needed a new court physician and Merlin was his apprentice so was needed to help.

"Well there's no point standing on the doorstep." said Arthur oblivious to Merlin's hurt as he stepped into the room and started to look for a book that may help them, after a moment's hesitation Merlin joined him. Arthur was captivated by the beautiful images and the intricate writing however, to his dismay, most of it was written in a strange unearthly language that he did not comprehend though Merlin seemed to be fluent in it. They sat at a small table and began to go through a large stack of books with Arthur reading the few ones that were entirely in his language. They stayed there barely speaking until they started to get hungry which was when Merlin reached into his bag and brought out two parcels which contained bread, cheese and ham. Arthur sniffed it cautiously, "Where did this come from?"

"I summoned it from the tavern kitchen while no one was looking, I thought we might get hungry." said Merlin wolfing down a massive bite of bread.

They spent the rest of the day in that small room but still didn't find anything that might help them wake Gwen and the knights. When night fell they decided that they didn't want to return to the tavern to sleep so Merlin conjured up cushions and blankets and they curled up in a secluded corner of library to sleep. Arthur wanted to light a fire in the old fireplace but Merlin said that someone would notice the smoke and might come and investigate. "Why don't you use a spell to trap the smoke?"

"Because, I've already used more magic in one day than I would usually do and magic does drain energy also I can't keep magic sustained when I'm asleep easily."

**Please let me know what you think. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: no me own Merlin. **

**Enjoy!**

The next morning Arthur woke first and stared around his surroundings in puzzlement trying to work out why he was not in his lovely soft bed back in his chambers. Then he remembered he was in Camelot library all those he knew were dead, the grief washed over him in fresh waves. He looked at the sleeping form of Merlin beside him but didn't have the heart to wake him, he looked like he really needed a good sleep, Arthur supposed that the last few days must have been just have difficult for the thin dark haired man as it had been for himself.

Moving carefully, so has not to disturb merlin, Arthur stood up and began to walk around the library. He had never paid enough attention to this place when he was alive before and he was now whishing that he had come in here more often. There were loads of interesting books he had found already with only a few minutes of searching. There was a sound behind him and he turned but it was only Merlin. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry." said Merlin insolently

"Any way we need to get to work, I want to see Gwen again,"

"We may not find anything and even if we do it might not work sire."

"It has to work."

They went back to the room and continued to search through the books. Around lunch time, when Arthur was bored out of his mind and considering having a small snooze when Merlin looked up from the large, dusty volume he was reading excitedly yelled "Here I think I may have found something." Arthur rushed over all boredom forgotten.

"What does it say?"

"It says that when the once and future king returns the knights will rise at the sound of a bell."

"What does that mean?"

"I've not finished hang on." said Merlin "When the once and future king returns the Knights will rise at the sound of a bell forged in a dragons breath and blessed by a high priestess of the old religion."

"Where in the 5 kingdoms are we going to find that?"

"We needed to find more books, stop looking through ones of prophecy and concentrate on ones about magical objects." After several more hours of furiously searching through books Arthur came across a passage in a book on the history of the Isle of the blessed. "It says here that there was only one bell forged in dragon's breath and blessed by a high priestess and it was hidden on the Isle of the blessed."

"Well done, now we know where to look the only issue is getting there and how we get in, its Morgana's most heavily defended fortress."

"We will figure that out when we get there right now we need another horse or it would take ages to even get there."

"How are we going to get another horse? We can't buy a horse it would mean that if someone recognised me they would be able to trace us and stealing one would get the whole city guard on our tails."

"Is there any one in one of the outlying villages that can be trusted?"

"Not that I know of" he paused for a minute, "Though there are still the druids, during Merek's reign they were driven into hiding and now live largely in a massive secret cave system underground, I'm sure that they could lend us a horse."

"Errm ok" Arthur was still distrustful of the druids especially after Mordred but he supposed that he had no choice.

"Look, I know you are distrustful of the druids but they are a peaceful people and won't hurt you.

They spent the rest of the day making plans before falling asleep, they had decided that they would set of early the next day, get out of the city and then find the druids and hopefully spend the night with them before heading to the Isle of the blessed the day after.

The next morning they cleared up all evidence that they had been there and placed it all in the secret room which Merlin then closed. They walked towards the door then Merlin shrunk them again and they walked under the door and out into the bright sunlight outside. After being inside for two whole days it was a relief to be out in the open air again. When they were sure no one was insight, Merlin changed them both back to regular size before turning Arthur invisible again. Merlin himself had not used the potion to turn him back to the right age yet so he still looked about fifty years old.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible they possibly could, which was quite hard for Arthur because people kept trying to walk into him, they made their way to the main gates and passed through with the morning traffic exciting the city. They walked into the woods until they were sure that no one would see then Merlin first made Arthur visible then he drank the potion and regained his original appearance. Finally, he brought out the box containing the horse, placed the horse on the ground and muttered a spell and the horse returned to full size.

"Where do we find the druids?" Arthur asked after they had been traveling for a few hours. He knew they were heading south of Camelot but not much more than that.

"Just keep heading south until we find the cave." said Merlin he had not visited them for quite some time and was looking forward to seeing them again. He loved entertaining the children with his magic; he would tell them stories and illustrate them as he told them and sometimes would make light blue butterflies dance around their heads.

"What caves?"

"The caves that the druids live in you clotpole, it is one of the ways they hide from Morgana."

"I'd have thought she would have welcomed the druids?"

"She did and a few of the younger ones left their tribes to follow her but the majority could not stand for what she is doing to the kingdom and refused to join her, as you can imagine she wasn't pleased and so she started a war with the druids and she managed to capture or kill many of them but a few escaped and built one large new tribe in an underground cave network traveling the length of the kingdom."

A horrible thought gushed into Arthur's mind. "Will the druids accept me? I mean, I personally raided their camps and killed quite a few of them" he said with a sorrowful glance at Merlin.

"You made peace with the druids and though and though I doubt it will ever be forgotten but it is probably forgiven."

They rode on in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the forest. "Thank you Merlin." Merlin looked taken aback at Arthur's sincere words.

"What for?"

"For everything, for saving my life and for helping me to try and wake the knights."

"Erm what's brought this up?" said Merlin his face blushing

"I was thinking about how lucky I am to have you, you saved my life so many times and never revealed yourself. It must have been hard."

"Harder than you can imagine." admitted Merlin "I wanted to tell you so often but it was never the right time or I wasn't sure what your reaction would be."

"Looking back I don't know what I would have done if you had told me, but now I know and we need your magic to put an end to Morgana's reign once and for all. I guess magic can be used for good as well as evil."

"I never expected those words to come out of your mouth Arthur Pendragon!"

"You will never hear them again."

"Clotpole."

"Dollop head." And soon both were insulting each other like the good old days.

Eventually, they came to a cave deep in the side of a cliff like a gaping mouth, ready to swallow anyone who dared enter its sacred depths. They dismounted and Arthur walked towards the cave entrance.

"Arthur stop!" yelled Merlin but it was too late for Arthur had just reached the mouth and started to carry on walking when suddenly, there was something hard and smooth preventing him from moving forward. It felt like he had just run into a pane of glass.

"Ouch!"

"Didn't I tell you that the druids had protected this place, this shield can prevent even Morgana from entering, I should know, I put it up myself." said Merlin has he laid his hand on a particular place in the cliff face which looked indistinguishable from the rest of the enormous wall of rock that rose above them, until Merlin took his hand away and revealed a glimmering golden hand print that sparkled in the evening sunlight. Even as Merlin took his hand away it faded and in a matter of seconds had vanished entirely.

"Can we go in now?"

"Not yet we can't just go barging in, we have to wait for one of the druids to come out and meet us."

As he spoke there was a disturbance at the cave mouth and a cloaked figure appeared.

"Who is it at this time of day?" said a voice; it did not sound unkind but warm, friendly and inviting. He took of his hood to reveal a weather beaten old face surrounded by a mane of silver hair which flowed like a waterfall over his cloaked shoulders. "Oh my lord Emrys I'm so sorry I didn't see you there." he said his face brightening up "Who is your friend?"

"Who is Emrys?" said Arthur looking all around to see if someone else was there. Merlin grinned at his friend's confused expression "I am. It's what the druids call me." he said stifling a laugh at Arthurs now embarrassed face.

"This is Arthur, the once and future king. He has returned." he said turning to the druid "Good to see you again."

The druid, who was called Terrowin, looked at Arthur in awe before saying "I never thought I would live to see the day. Welcome to the underworld my lord."


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin. If I did, it would end very differently.**

They followed Terrowin through a Labyrinth of passageways that Arthur felt sure that he would never remember until they came out and stood on a platform overlooking a vast cavern lit by many brightly blazing torches hanging from brackets in the walls. On the cavern floor there seemed to be a sea of multi-coloured tents and people hurried about from one tent to another or chatted excitedly in groups while children ran round happily playing games. In the centre of the cavern was a circle made of wooden benches where a large bonfire was lit. There were several other fires on which various animals seemed to be roasting, their delectable scent wafting up to the platform on which they stood making both Merlin's and Arthur's stomachs groan in complaint at having to wait for such a delicious feast. It was one huge underground city.

"Welcome to the underworld" said the druid gesturing to the wondrous scene in front of them, "It's not much and I doubt its anything compared to what you Lords are used to."

"It's amazing" said Arthur staring. Only I'm sure there wasn't a cave here when I was alive, you know, the first time."

"I carved it out of the cliff for them when they first went into hiding." explained Merlin "The rest of the tents and everything has happened since."

They followed Terrowin down a steep path that lead down to the town itself. From there he led them to the largest tent. It seemed to sparkle in the torch light like an emerald jewel and it was big enough to comfortably encompass all the Knights of the Round Table. Just as they approached the flap at the front, which served has a door, twitched open and out came a tall blonde woman with her hair tumbling down her back and over her cloak which was as richer green as the tent. She appeared quite young but her eyes seemed to have seen everything and looked old. When she saw Merlin she smiled and bowed her head, "My lord Emrys it has been a long time since you graced our halls with your presence."

Merlin bowed his head and replied, "I wish I had visited more often Alba, I'm sorry I haven't but you know how it is with Morgana in charge, traveling isn't exactly easy."

Alba nodded then asked. "Who is the man standing next to you, his face is vaguely familiar."

"This is Arthur, the once and future king, he has returned to help rid us of the tyrant that is Morgana." said Merlin. "Arthur, this is Alba; she is in charge of the druids in this particular region of the caves." Arthur muttered a greeting.

Alba clapped her hands in delight, "I now know where I've seen your face." she said looking straight at Arthur," I had a dream a few weeks ago that someone would come and start the rebellion, someone that had been alive before and would be alive again."

"Um well, I don't know about rebellion just yet, I have only been alive for a week."

Alba laughed. "Come in Emrys and explain why you and Arthur are here, I doubt you would be here unless you need our help and in a while we shall eat."

"Thank you" they said and followed her inside the tent where they explained what had happened since Arthur's return and why they needed help to reach the Isle of the blessed.

"I have heard about a bell such as you describe once before long ago" she mused "Very well we will lend you a Horse and the provisions you need for the journey but tonight you shall feast with us and we shall send the word among the druids that the once and future king has returned and then you shall sleep."

"Thank you my lady we are very grateful."

When they emerged from the tent, blinking in the flickering torch light, they found a small crowd had a massed outside eagerly attempting to catch a glimpse of Merlin and Arthur has they made their way to a bench and sat down. Dinner with the druids was a new experience for Arthur, everyone sat together on the benches, children sitting on the floor by their parents and a few at a time they went up to a large table at the front, picked up a plate a choose a selection of the food on offer. There was: venison, pork, goose, duck, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, turnips, bread, cheese, ham and a large bowl of mushroom soup. Everyone got equal amounts so there was plenty to go round. Arthur thought that he had never had a better meal in his life, everyone was laughing and joking together has they ate and the food was mouth-watering. As he chewed he wondered how a people so punished by life managed to be so cheerful and create such spectacular things.

After everyone had eaten had much as they could and all the dirty dishes had been washed (by magic of course, the water came from a stream that flowed through the cave) Alba called for silence and asked if anyone had a story they would like to tell. Instantly hands shot up all over the place but Arthur choose a girl aged about eleven and her younger brother who told a story about a dragon as she spoke, her brother transformed the smoke into a dragon that soared over the heads of the audience, who gasped in wonder. Next an older man told about the time he had seen a unicorn. Has he told his story both Merlin and Arthur were transported back to the time they had met a unicorn and the guardian of the unicorns.

"Emrys would you please tell us a story?" at first Merlin refused but the crowd of assembled druids called his name until, laughing, he gave up and walked into the circle. Merlin told the best story of all, the story of a young boy with magic who finds himself becoming the prince's manservant and has to hide his magic from everyone. Arthur realised with a jolt that this was his and Merlin's story and he was ashamed at how Merlin had had to keep his powers suppressed for so long.

Eventually, Merlin's story came to an end and he flopped down next to Arthur, they both felt tired and weary and it was a relief when a young druid girl approached them and said that Alba had told her to take Merlin to their tent so they could sleep. Too tired to even stand, they flopped onto the two piles of blankets and, contented, fell asleep. It was the best night sleep that Arthur could remember.

Then next morning Merlin woke Arthur with the customary "Rise and shine" and they went back into the main cavern. They found Alba talking to Tarrowin in the bonfire circle. When she saw them she said "Ah your awake, Tarrowin will take you to have breakfast and then you will find two of our best horses, I doubt you will want to hang around knowing that they way to wake your wife and your brave knights is out there." she added for Arthur with an expression of great sadness. "I never got to meet them but Merlin has told me many stories about them."

They followed Tarrowin to a table and had a breakfast consisting of the previous night's leftovers then to two horses waiting patiently at the cave entrance, one bay the other grey, both with bulging saddle bags stuffed with provisions. They mounted their horses, said their goodbyes and with one last look of regret at the homely cave, galloped off towards the Isle of the Blessed.


	8. Chapter 8

**It's been a while, but here's the next instalment of this story. I'll be updating a lot more frequently since my friend now has a lot more written. I don't understand how she can write so much sometimes - I can usually write about 2000 words in one go. anyway, hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: IDOM. I'll leave you to figure out what that means.**

They reached the shores of the lake where The Isle of the Blessed was the following evening after having camped out in the forest overnight. They made camp slightly inland from the lake because they did not want someone to spot them from the fortress on the Island. This meant they could not have a fire therefore they could not have warm food so Arthur was not in a good mood.

He was sat on lookout duty, in the early hours of the morning, concealed among the trees by the shore and gazed out across the water with a sort of instrument the Merlin had given him. It was a sort of hollow pole with a lens in each end. He had to admit that Morgana's fortress was impressive even in the half light of the time just before dawn, it looked ominous and eerie. She had rebuilt the old ruins that had lain forlorn and desolate on the Isle during his reign and now they stood tall and proud, kings of the surrounding landscape .Magic radiated of the place so strongly that even Arthur could feel it like thousands of tiny pinpricks up and down his body making him shiver. The castle had an atmosphere of fear and dread around it like flies on a rotten piece of meat, he wondered for how many men, the outside of that demonic building had been the last view of the outside they would ever have seen.

He went back to camp and roused Merlin who moaned about getting up but Arthur was really not in the mood for having to drag his manservant out of his sleep, so he instead just yelled insults until Merlin muttered "Alright, I'm getting up." they had some left over bread and cheese for breakfast and then proceeded to wash in a small stream that ran past the camp and down into the lake.

Has they were eating Arthur asked "How are we going to get on to the Island in the first place there isn't a boat and even if there were I'm sure they would spot us before we even get there."

"I've been working on that," said Merlin smirking "What if we walk under the lake?"

"That's impossible." said Arthur temporarily forgetting that nothing was impossible if Merlin was around.

"Not if I provide air using magic and to weigh us down."

"Merlin, for once that doesn't sound like a totally stupid idea." Arthur said sarcastically. Merlin had changed a lot in the time his since his death but he was still the same old Merlin, however Arthur was beginning to realise that he had not known Merlin very well. Merlin had hidden who his magic and who he truly was for so long. He had saved Arthur's life countless times and had allowed others to take the credit. He used to think of Merlin has foolish, clumsy, loyal and brave, now he knew that he was all those things as well as stubborn, clever and magical.

Merlin laughed "Well I've been waiting for you for other 1000 years; you didn't think I was wasting my time did you? I have read more books on magic than Gwaine had fights in the Tavern.

Arthur smiled but it was only half-hearted, the mention of Gwaine reminded him of how he had died. Of all the knights deaths Gwaine's was the hardest to bear. Arthur vowed that even if they did manage to wake the knights he was going to make Morgana pay for that.

They spent the rest of the day making preparations, well actually Arthur made the preparations, Merlin had explained that he needed to rest in order to keep his strength up to make sure he could perform the incredibly difficult magic he was going to have to do that night. "Bloody warlocks, what use is magic if it takes so much energy to use." he muttered under his breath as he saw to the horses. Then a more pressing thought occurred to him and he rushed over to where merlin was. "Merlin, how are we going to find the bell inside the fortress it could be anywhere."

Merlin lazily opened his eyes and said, "Simple, we can use a finding spell," he picked up a stone lying on the muddy ground, "I can enchant this stone so that it glows brighter the closer to the bell it gets" he spoke a few words and both his eyes and the stone glowed gold for a moment and then faded back to their usual colours ."Arthur, bring your sword - we may need to fight and I doubt I will have the energy to make you invisible again."

It seemed to take a life time but eventually the evening came and they stood on the shore of the still lake as Merlin said the words. His eyes gleamed in the darkness and Arthur felt a tingling sensation spread over his body once again. Then has quietly has possibly could they walked into the lake. The water lapping at his ankles, at their calves, at their chests and then it reached their shoulders. With one last breath of fresh air Merlin dived under the water and with a moment's hesitation Arthur followed.

Being underwater was a strange experience which neither of them was ever likely to forget. The freezing water pushed at them from all sides yet they could see clearly. Merlin jumped as some small silver fish brushed past his leg and Arthur gasped as a huge trout swam overhead. Progress was slow as the pressure of the water meant they could not go fast but that pressure seemed to lighten and they sandy lake bottom they were walking on seemed to slope upwards. Arthur gulped his first breath of fresh air has his head broke the surface of the calm lake, Merlin right beside him. They climbed up the rocky shore right up to the walls of the fortress. Up close it was even more dark, dank and desolate that it was from the opposite shore.

Merlin cast a spell to make sure no one was on the other side of the wall and then, his eyes narrowed in concentration, he began to draw the outline of a hole big enough to allow them through in the cool stone wall. When he had traced the complete hole he spoke in the chilling language of magic and the stones inside where he had drawn vanished silently into thin air.

The crawled through the hole and stood up, looking nervously around them. They were stood in a cobbled courtyard surrounded by the impenetrable wall, in the corners there were four gigantic towers looming over the rest of the island. Where they had emerged they could not be seen by the guards stood at the base of each tower but if they moved they would be instantly seen and arrested.

"What do we do about them." said Arthur gesturing at the guards. Merlin spoke a few words and all the guards around the courtyard fell asleep immediately. He then fished the stone out of his pocket and sure enough it was faintly glowing. Carefully, so as to not disturb the soldiers, they walked around the courtyard, watching the stone, until they came to a large slab of stone fairly close to the wall. When they reached it the stone grew noticeably brighter. "Your magic stone's broken. How is a bell hidden in a solid slab of rock?"

"Perhaps there is a secret passage hidden under this rock?"

"If you're right how do we open it?"

"There might be a lever hidden behind one of the stones in the wall." He began to feel up and down the wall.

"Here" yelled Arthur, "The mortar around this stone is slightly loose and there is a small ring in it." he said pointing to a stone near the bottom of the wall. He pulled the ring and slowly and jerkily the stone came free from the wall revealing a small rusty handle.

"Press it down" urged Merlin has he jumped away from the stone. Arthur did so and with a grating sound the large stone began to slide back to reveal and long flight of stairs leading away into darkness.

"Woah, that's clever."

"No time to admire the craftsmanship, the guards will wake up soon and we don't want to be here when they do."

Merlin started down the steps and Arthur followed. He wasn't used to Merlin being in charge and he wasn't sure he liked it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: me no own merlin and me no do grammar. This sentence annoys me so much, you don't understand.**

**Anyway *nervous laugh* enjoy!**

It was pitch black at the bottom of the stairs so Merlin lit a fire in has hand for light as well as a little bit of warmth; it was chilly down there. They found themselves at the beginning of a long twisting passage way. The stone was glowing even brighter down there so they set of down the tunnel. Arthur had no idea how long they had been down there but they walked until their feet ached. Sometimes the passageway grew so low they had to duck until the roof lifted again. The air wasn't to stale down there so they assumed that there must be away for air to circulate.

Suddenly, the tunnel broadened out into a cavern and the stone glowed more brilliantly than ever.

"It must be in here somewhere there is no other way out." Said Merlin. They walked around in a circle until he spotted a hole in the wall. "It could be in here." he said as he felt around the hole. "Here, I think I've found it." Arthur's heart stopped. Finally after all this time, they had found it, they had found the way to wake his wife and his dearest friends again. Merlin felt the same as he pulled out an item wrapped in a green velvet cloth. He quickly unwrapped it. It was the most exquisite thing they had ever seen. It was made of bronze with interact patterns all over its shiny surface that sparkled in the light of Merlin's fire. There must but some magical properties that prevented it from tarnishing Merlin mused as he quickly wrapped it back up in its cloth and put it in his pack.

They started back along the tunnel and it seemed to take a shorter amount of time for them to reach the stairs and start the long climb up the flight of stairs. They reached the top and climbed out into the clean air of the night. They stood there for a minute breathing the air when they heard a shout and saw a guard running towards them. Arthur drew his sword and Merlin prepared to use his magic more guards followed the first and they were quickly surrounded.

They stood back to back facing their enemy. Arthur wanted to attack but Merlin said "It's no use there are far too many of them to take by ourselves."

A hooded figure stepped out of the crowd. "Emrys," the voice was familiar and it sent shivers down Arthur's back, "And my dear brother I see, back from the dead already." the figure said in a mocking tone. She lifted her hood to reveal a face as beautiful as the first day Merlin had seen it. Midnight black hair curled down her back and she was dressed in the finest clothes that Arthur had seen since his return.

"Morgana." His voice was steely and cold.

"Well done, you know my name, it will be the last one you ever hear."

"What?"

"Kill them" she said callously "Make it has painful as possible." she stepped back from the circle and into the fortress as the soldiers drew their weapons and advanced slowly.

As soon as Morgana stepped back, Merlin began shouting in a loud hoarse language and looking up at the sky. "Merlin a little help here!" said Arthur has he prepared to fight.

"Come on, come on!"

Just as the first soldier came within fighting distance a noise like a hurricane came from above and everyone looked up to the sky. Fire flashed down in front of them, killing several guards.

It was a dragon. A giant gold fire-breathing dragon. It swooped past twice more breathing fire until all the guards were dead. It then landed in the courtyard right in front of them.

"Killgarrah." said Merlin and he bowed his head

"Young warlock." greeted the ancient dragon" I see the king has returned" he said peered at Arthur with amber eyes.

"Y-you can talk."

"Of course I can talk." said Killgarrah. a rumbling began in his throat which Merlin took to be a laugh.

"You attacked Camelot"

"Yes I did but that was a long time ago and I'm sorry." he seemed genuinely upset.

"No time." said Merlin more guards were hurrying towards them from the tower. "Get on"

"What."

"Just get on, Killgarrah will you take us to Camelot." Arthur climbed on trembling in fear.

"I will." Merlin climbed on behind him and with one mighty flap of his wings the dragon took off, up over the battlements, over the lake and over the mountains.

After a while a muffled voice came from in front of Merlin, "Why the hell am I currently riding a dragon that tried to destroy Camelot?"

Merlin sighed he knew he was going to have to tell Arthur at some point. "You remember when the dragon was attacking Camelot and we had to find Balinor?" Arthur nodded. "Well, he was my father; I'm the last dragon lord, that's how I can call KIllgarrah." there was silence for a minute then "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"It's sort of need to know information."

They carried on talking, Arthur asking Merlin questions, until KIllgarrah began circling over a clearing in the woods near Camelot and eventually landed. They clambered off his back "Thank you."

"My pleasure young warlock, Arthur's return bodes well for Albion. Hopefully you will rid us of this tyrant witch, goodbye."

With that he flapped his wings and set off, a splendid sight, he looked almost like a star shining in the inky night.

"I will never forget that, I've ridden a dragon to Camelot, Merlin." Merlin didn't reply

"Merlin?" Arthur turned around Merlin was lying on the ground unconscious. Arthur rushed to his side, "Merlin! Merlin wake up" but Merlin didn't wake. He must be exhausted after all that magic, Arthur supposed, so he carried Merlin to a place to make camp and set him on the ground covering him with his cloak. He made a fire than sat by a tree and swiftly fell asleep.

The next day Merlin woke to the smell of something burning. "What in the name of the round table is going on?" he murmured as he got to his feet, he was starving. He always was when he had performed difficult magic. Arthur was sat by a fire roasting some animal so blackened and burnt Merlin couldn't tell what it was. "I think they're done."

"Merlin I know you doubt my cooking skills."

"With good reason, you've burnt them."

"Have not, they're just well done." said Arthur has he took them of the fire and gave one to Merlin, who tried to find some edible meat.

There wasn't much.

"Anyway I'm not the one who has slept till nearly noon. I've actually done something while you've been snoozing."

After breakfast they sat down to discuss their plan for that night when they would wake the others.

"We can't go straight through the town like we did last time; Morgana knows your're back and will be expecting you."

"Well why don't we go through the dungeon entrance?"

"We could though it's guarded now, Morgana isn't has stupid has you where, she knows that's a weak point and doesn't want people to just walk in and out.

"We take out the guards then, where is the tomb?"

"It's hidden so Morgana can't find it but I can."

When night fell they made their way towards one of the dungeon exits on the outskirts of Camelot. There were two guards on duty but Merlin made them fall asleep. They silently crept to the grate and forced it open. Arthur took one of the torches from the wall and used its light to guide them. As they walked past the cells, they were horrified to discover that each one was filled with prisoners. Merlin made everyone fall asleep as they past so no one would be able to tell Morgana that they had been there. They went down a steep flight of steps and came into the cave where the great dragon used to live.

They came out onto the precipice overhanging the gushing river at the bottom of the ravine. Arthur gasped, he had never been in that cave and it was impressive. It was a cathedral of stone with magnificent arches and it had the same feeling as a church; the feeling of forced silence and whispered prayers. For Merlin it was strange coming back to this familiar place, he had not been there for so long though he used to spend a lot of time in here: it was where he had spent a lot of time thinking about Arthur and his friends.

Not much had changed since Arthur's death in the cave however; a path had been chiselled into the rock face leading to a stone room cut right into the rock. The door opened at Merlin's touch and they stepped into the cold room. Around the room there were 5 marble tombs each one displaying an effigy of its occupant. With an anguished cry Arthur knelt beside Gwen's tomb and stroked her freezing marble face has tears streamed down his face.

"Arthur." said Merlin gently, "Not long now."

**I didn't even write this and I'm still crying about Gwen. Yes, I will get attached to a fictional character even though my spanish teacher says I shouldn't! Don't ask. It's a long story involving a translation task and Severus Snape.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or any characters or places associated with it. Technically, I don't even own the plot since it was not me that wrote it. Basically, I own nothing. **

**Now that's done, enjoy!**

Merlin walked up to Gwen's tomb and took the bell out of his pack, "Arthur, please move back I'm not sure how this is going to work and it may be explosive." He rang the bell and a sharp piercing note hung in the clear air, he began to read of the bell in the language of magic. Nothing happened. "Please work, please work." Merlin wished.

A grating noise: the lid of the tomb slid off to reveal Gwen, lying in her coronation robes, breathing. She was not as Merlin last remembered her, grey, tired and old: but as Arthur had known her radiant in her youth and splendour. She opened her eyes to see a once familiar face looking down at her and smiling. "Arthur, I must be dead, I've hated every day I've spent away from you."

"No my love, you aren't dead you are very much alive."

"What, I was dying and why am I lying in a tomb and why are you here?" As Arthur had explained what had happened. Merlin began to wake the others, first Elyan, then Percival, then Leon and finally Gwaine all of whom had similar reactions to being woken. They gathered round Merlin and Arthur has they explained. Merlin was surprised when Gwaine showed no surprise when he confessed to having magic. "Mate I've known since the day I met you, that day in the tavern which was apparently over 1000 years ago, what surprises me was the fact that none of the rest of you seemed to know. Oblivious idiots."

"Welcome back Gwaine." said Arthur clapping Gwaine on the back, "You haven't changed a bit."

"Neither have you princess."

"Never mind that," said Leon, the most sensible of the knights. "How are we going to get out of here and where are we going to go."

"We will take the path that follows the water and can hide in the woods or with the druids."

"Erm, I don't think that I would be able to go anywhere wearing this." said Gwen indicating at her coronation gown. It was beautifully and rich with intricate embroidery which sparkled in the torch light but it was heavy and hardly practical. The knights were all wearing armour so it wasn't as bad for them.

"Don't worry Gwen." said Merlin, when she became queen she had begged him to stop calling her "your majesty." he concentrated for a moment and a set of leggings and a Tunic appeared in front of them.

"Thank you Merlin for everything, for bringing Arthur home." She said.

The knights and Merlin politely left the room so that Arthur could help Gwen get out of her gown. They were, after all married.

"Gwen, I'm so sorry I left you." said Arthur has he helped her

"It wasn't your fault you were protecting your, our kingdom, no one can escape their destiny not even you, however much you try."

"I just feel that if I just hadn't been so." he never finished that sentence because Gwen kissed him for the first time in 1000 years.

Outside Merlin and the knights were catching up about what had happened since their deaths, talking about their wives and children. Gwaine was especially keen to know what had happened, Merlin supposed this was because he had died first.

"So your saying that you have been alive all this time and haven't visibly aged, Morgana is now in charge of Albion, Arthur came back to save us and you went to find a magic bell that woke us all up from death?." asked Elyan

"Err yes."

"That sounds pretty awesome to be honest."

"Believe me these centuries have been boring without you all, immortality is not fun, not when you see all your friends die."

"Oh well we are back now so cheer up!"

"Yeah you can go back to washing the dishes." Leon joked

"If you think now you're back that I will be a servant again you are sadly mistaken."

"Hey it would take half the time now you can use your magic in front of Arthur."

"Speaking of which, how many times did you save his life with magic for him to think there were so many strange coincidences when you appeared?"

"A lot, when he came back he thought my magic was a dream and he took it fairly well I think, better than expected at least."

Just then the door opened and Gwen and Arthur walked out blushing. "At last what was going on in there?"

"Nothing"

"You are a terrible liar."

"No time for that now the guards will wake up any minute."

"How do we get out?"

"Down here," said Merlin, gesturing with the torch he was holding to a continuation of the path which wound its way into darkness. "It should take us out into the wood but I've never taken it."

"We had better hurry." said Elyan, he had the best hearing, "I'm sure I can hear noises."

They hurried along the path Arthur in the lead with a torch followed by Gwen with Merlin at the rear ready to stun any one coming down the path after them.

As they walked they chatted about Camelot, for Merlin it was one of the happiest days of his life, he was back with his best friends and everything was going to be alright; they would defeat Morgana and would rebuild Albion. Light flared in the darkness and they realised it was daylight. They sped up and soon were all running into the dappled sunlight of the wood. They were sprinting now, Merlin surprised them all by being the fastest until he tripped over a tree root and went toppling head over heels with the other following him until they were all lying on the ground laughing.


	11. Chapter 11

**I got a lot of feels when I read through this, so beware, and also enjoy!**

**I'm running out of witty disclaimers so have this non witty one:**** I do not own Merlin or any related characters or places. **

Morgana was not in a good mood, and that was an understatement, she was furious. Not only had her incompetent guards failed to kill Arthur and Merlin but had then practically stepped aside and allowed them to waltz back into Camelot.

She marched down the path to the tomb, of course she knew it was there but she had never been able to gain entry until now. She didn't expect however, the scene of utter wonder in front of her. All the tombs were open with no one inside; on the ground lay a red velvet robe that must have been Gwen's. Frustrated and angry, she kicked one of the marble coffins only to scream in annoyance at the sharp pain in her foot. Merlin and Arthur had found a way to wake their friends but they would not get far she would see to that. They would all be dead within a matter of weeks.

Merlin sat roasting several rabbits and a bird on an open wood fire, it had been two days since the others had woken and they all seemed to be adjusting well. They were yet to find a permanent camp though because all the suitable places they had found so far were way too close to Camelot and Morgana would find them in an instant.

The knights and Arthur were messing around close by and Gwen sat by Merlin chatting to him about old times.

At last it was time to eat and they gathered round the fire and ate the rabbits. It really was delicious, they all unanimously agreed that merlin's cooking had gotten much better over the years. Tired and so full of food they thought they might burst they all curled up around the clearing to sleep.

Merlin woke up during the night and gazed up at the stars high above him. He didn't know what had woken him but he felt a sudden urge to go for a walk. He stood up and began wandering, he wasn't sure where he was going but it felt right. A darkness loomed up in the distance, with a jolt he realised it was a cave, he wasn't scared as he entered it though there could have been all manner of things down there such as Wilderen. The first section of the cave was full of bright crystal sparkling in the darkness, it took him a moment to work out that he was in the cave of crystals. He walked on in darkness, when he suddenly saw a light up ahead, curiously he speed up his pace until he burst into another chamber and saw someone who he couldn't possible have seen they were dead, they had been dead for ages. Stood in the centre of the chamber was Gaius.

"Gaius" Merlin ran to him and tried to put his arms around him in an embrace but his arms met air, he had passed right through him. "What are you?" asked Merlin a hint of suspicion in his voice. Now he looked closer he saw that Gaius was not quite how he had been when he was alive, his whole body was glittering like it was made of stars and was fading in and out of focus.

"Merlin my boy!" said Gaius in his old familiar voice, "We don't have long and I need to see the others."

"What, haven't you come to talk to me?"

"Merlin, I will be able to talk to you later but I need you to go and fetch the others there are more of us who want to talk."

"More-"

"Hurry we can't stay long, go bring them to this place but don't tell them about me until they get here."

Merlin raced back to camp where he shook the others into consciousness. "Merlin what the hell let us go back to sleep."

"No time have to go follow me." Merlin panted and he ran back towards the cave. The others exchanged confused glances before following him into the blackness.

They all gasped as they reached the caves and they all drew their swords, Gaius was still there but he had been joined by Lancelot, Mordred and perhaps most surprisingly Uther Pendragon. "What, father, Mordred." said Arthur and his eyes narrowed when he saw Mordred "What are you doing here, you're dead"

"My son, I'm so proud of you!"

"Arthur I'm so sorry."

"Wait one at a time, you first." Arthur said pointing at Mordred.

"I'm sorry Arthur, for everything I should never had joined Morgana, it is all my fault."

Arthur nodded "I will never forgive you Mordred but I understand how hard it is to resist Morgana; she is very manipulative." He then turned to his father

"I'm proud of you my son." said Uther

"Really?"

"Yes, I made many mistakes in my reign and you are going to fix them, I know you are, before I fade I must tell you something."

"Yes?" said Arthur his eyes shining, he was hoping to learn something about his mother.

"I must confess." Uther's voice was slow and full of sorrow, "Morgause was telling the truth when she told you that you were born of Magic and that the magic had killed your mother."

"What, but you said it was a lie."

"If we didn't say that, then you would have killed me."

"What do you mean we?"

"Merlin came up with the lie and saved my life."

"Oh." Arthur made a mental note to talk to Merlin about the severity of lying to the king later but then he remembered that Merlin had been lying to him for years.

"I wanted to say my son, that, though I will always regret that decision, you brought me the second greatest joy in my life after your mother."

"Tell me about her."

"She was kind, beautiful, clever and was the only person to ever stand up to me, I guess that was what drew me to her."

Meanwhile Merlin, Gwen and the knights were talking to Gaius and Lancelot. "Is there a way for me to bring you back?"

"Unfortunately, old friend," said Lancelot "that is impossible"

"And even if it was," added Gaius "we have lived our lives to the fullest and I at least do not wish to return to your world."

"But there must."

"No Merlin, not this time the other Knights and Arthur were destined to wake we were not."

"Lance, what's it like, you know being dead." asked Percival

"Pretty boring seeing has you lot aren't here, I was waiting for you but you never appeared."

"We will one day I'm sure." said Elyan

"You will." Merlin said forlornly, he knew that he would see all his friends die again and this time there would be no second chance, he would never join them in the land beyond.

They talked together sharing stories of the past until Arthur re-joined them, looking pale.

"It is nearly dawn, we must leave." said Gaius

"One last thing," said Uther turning to Merlin. "Thank you for protecting my son."

Then the light from the apparitions seemed to grow brighter and brighter until in one blinding flash of light the figures vanished.

Dazed and confused, Arthur turned to Merlin "What the hell was that." everyone turned expectantly to Merlin. "Honestly, I have no idea."

"What's the use of never dying if you don't know what just happened?"

"Hey, I've spent most of my life hiding from those who want to kill me." Merlin retorted.

**So we see Gaius and Uther and Lancelot again and I'm reminded of how much I hate character deaths. Hope you liked it.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hi, welcome to another chapter of this story. I don't know what else to put here so I'm going to get on with it.**

**disclaimer: I do not own Merlin, in case you couldn't tell.**

They stumbled out of the cave and blinked in the light of the pale dawn sun outside.

"What are we going to do today?" asked Leon

"We probably need to find somewhere to make camp."

"But where?"

"If I knew we wouldn't need to find one would we, clotpole." all the knights used that insult now because it was such a good word.

"It needs to be quite deep in the woods so we can avoid being found by Morgana; she has spies in the wood to make sure that the people who still live in the outlying villages don't rebel."

"Which way do we go?"

"Head deeper into the woods and hope we find somewhere suitable."

They had no horses (the borrowed horses from the druids had been set loose at the place where Merlin and Arthur camped on the Isle of the Blessed) so progress so all that day and the next were spent wandering the woods however, towards the end of the third day since they had seen the ghosts, they came to a waterfall tumbling off the edge of a cliff and into a swirling pool far below. They came to the pool and decided that it would make a good camp for that night. Arthur sent Elyan and Percival to collect firewood, then looked up at the waterfall with a mischievous glint in his eye, "Gwaine what's the betting that I can climb to the top before you."

"Washing the dishes for a month."

"A year."

"Deal."

"Arthur no, it's way too dangerous" yelled Gwen, she was not going to lose her husband again, not so soon after reuniting with him.

"It's fine, Merlin can cast a spell to catch us if we fall"

"Erm…" the warlock protested.

"So it's settled then!" and both men began shedding their heavy armour and preparing for the climb. They stood at the base of the cliff "three, two, one," and they were off, scrambling up the cliff face like a pair of mountain goats. Gwaine was in the lead at first but Arthur soon caught up with him and it was neck and neck for a while before Arthur took the lead. From those below it looked perilous. Gwen, Merlin and Leon waited with bated breath; suddenly Arthur yelled and disappeared beneath the waterfall.

"Arthur!" they all shouted as they waited anxiously for some sign of him but none came, Gwaine began slowly traversing to the place where Arthur had vanished when a muffled cry said "I'm all right but you want to come and have a look at this" They all felt faint with relief and Gwaine climbed down to join them

"How do we get up there." just then Arthur reappeared at the base of the cliff completely unharmed.

"What, how?"

"This way" he said beckoning them furiously.

Curiously, they all ran over to where Arthur was and discovered, hidden behind a curtain of ivy, a tunnel sloping sharply upwards.

"Woah, where does that go?"

"It's a surprise."

They all cautiously followed him up the passageway and out into bright sunlight.

They were standing in the most beautiful place any of them had ever seen, it was a paradise. Hidden between sheer cliffs of rock, there was bliss. A few trees and bushes were clumped near to the walls but the middle was a carpet of soft grass. There was a stream to one side that sprung up from the base of the stone and in the cliffs themselves were at least half a dozen small tunnels leading off in different directions.

"It's just like it was made for us." said Gwen her voice full of wonder and awe

"Morgana will never find us here and it seems to have everything we need for a decent long term camp."

Merlin wandered over to rock and was tracing something in the rock, the others ran over to join him and discovered that there were runes carved into the stone. "What do they say."

"I'm not sure but I think something along the lines of the garden of the dragonlords."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know; it was a garden that belonged to the dragonlords.

"And you're the last dragonlord."

"So it technically belongs to you."

They heard shouting from somewhere and realised that Elyan and Percival must have returned only to find all their friends vanished into thin air. Merlin and Gwaine ran back down the tunnel only to find a very confused pair of knights waiting for them when they reached the end of the passageway.

"What, how" Merlin and Gwaine burst out laughing at the look of puzzlement on their friends faces. "Where have you been?"

"We found camp, it's amazing." They lead Elyan and Percival, both of whom were laden with fire wood, up the slope and they gasped in awe at the Garden.

They finally lit the fire, and then Arthur, Gwaine and Elyan disappeared back into the forest to hunt for tea. Ravenously, they all devoured the meal and contented fell asleep under the watchful eyes of the stars.

The next morning they set about making the garden more of a camp. "This place is great for dry days but winter is fast approaching so we need some form of shelter."

"We could use the caves." Elyan suggested

"Alright if you want to hide in damp, dark cold caves, I'd prefer not to have to, thanks." said Percival

"Also, I've had way too many bad experiences with Wilderen to feel comfortable in caves." added Gwaine

"We should explore the caves though, they might be more entrances and exists that we don't know about and we don't want people to be able to get here without us knowing." said Arthur, with the knights back he was gaining more and more confidence with being a leader again, he was filled with optimism and hope that they would defeat Morgana and he would regain his throne. All though he did not know it however Merlin was feeling almost the opposite, he had been awaiting Arthur's return for so long and now it had actually happened he felt overwhelmed, he felt like he was becoming a servant again even with his magic and could see no possible way of defeating Morgana.

As it turned out they needn't had worried about the caves, most of them were just big enough to allow a man to stand right so they decided to use them as storage places for food because in the winter food would be scarce, the idea for using them to shelter in was also abandoned so the decision was made to make temporary shelters out of wood until they could find a more permanent solution.

Later that morning, Arthur borrowed Elyan's sword and gave it to Merlin. "What's this for, I can fight with magic."

"Yes but I want to see how well you fight with a sword, have you improved at all."

"You'd be surprised."

"I bet I won't be."

Arthur drew his own sword and the two men began sparring in the middle of the clearing. To Arthur's great surprise Merlin had indeed improved greatly since his death and though he was no match for Arthur who was still a superb swordsman but Arthur reckoned that Merlin could at least hold his own against a less well trained fighter.

"You have improved"

"I've had loads of time to practise but why do I even need a sword, I can always use magic.

"What if we fight an opponent that doesn't know about your magic, then if you fight with a sword we can use your magic has a surprise if we need it and fewer people will know."

"Did dying make you smarter?"

"Shut up Merlin"

"Which sword am I even going to use, I can't use Elyan's?"

"Can't you magic one?"

"I can't do everything with magic dollop head."

"Well then we'll figure something out."

They spent the rest of the day collecting large enough bits of wood, this took a while because none of them had an axe so they had to scavenge for suitable wood. They went out in two groups of three, Arthur, Gwen and Gwaine and Elyan and Percival and Leon with Merlin staying behind at camp. If either group found a piece of wood too large to carry, they would send a runner to fetch Merlin who would then transport it back to camp using magic.

Gwaine was the first runner to come back muttering that he couldn't spend one more minute with Arthur and Gwen, apparently the couple were way too in love and overjoyed at their reunion for him to bare, Gwaine said it made him feel sick. Merlin smiled, for many years he had experienced the same issue and they both had to stifle a laugh when they eventually reached the log, it was more of a tree to be honest and interrupted Gwen and Arthur in the middle of a kiss. Gwaine coughed and embarrassed they broke apart. "No kissing when working."

"Hey, I'm the king I'm in charge."

"Still" said Merlin "that was gross."

"Come here" Arthur lunged towards him but Merlin had not forgotten how to run, they chased each other around for a bit and then got back to work. Even though his magic was stronger now it still took a lot of effort to manoeuvre the tree up the tunnel and into camp. By the time they got there Elyan was waiting for them to take Merlin to the tree the other group had found.

That evening Merlin was exhausted and bruised and after a hearty meal of venison he collapsed and slept until morning.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't know what to put here, but I don't own Merlin.**

Unfortunately for Merlin that night he dreamed and it was not a pleasant dream. He was in a room that was familiar and with a start he realised it was the throne room of Camelot, however it was not has it had been in Arthur and Gwen's time, warm and welcoming but now it seemed gloomy and ominous. The red hangings emblazoned with a gold dragon where now black with a white dragon. "Aithusa" Merlin realised with a shudder, he had not seen the cream coloured dragon for years but he knew she was still alive: he could sense that much about the dragon, he had hatched but he wasn't sure where she was, he thought she was off hiding in the wild somewhere.

There was a knight dressed in black stood in the centre of the room addressing the figure lounging on the throne at the head of the room. Today Morgana was dressed all in black, not the scruffy sort of black but the sort of black that seemed to absorb the light around it, her face was pale and that made her jet-black hair and red lips looked even more alarming. "So" she said in her chilling voice "you're telling me that seven people have completely disappeared without a trace."

"Yes, my lady." the knight mumbled nervously.

"Well that simply isn't good enough is it?" she said her voice ominously low.

"No, my lady"

"Glad we reached an understanding, you may go." the knight turned to leave but just as he did Morgana pointed towards his and screamed some words, her eyes gleaming gold. The knight paused and crumpled to the floor in a heap. Merlin wanted to scream but he daren't even though there was no way Morgana could possibly hear him.

"Guards" she shrieked and the door was flung in and in walked two grim looking guards, they carefully stepped over the body on the floor and didn't even look surprised, this must happen regularly Merlin reasoned with a shudder.

"Get as many men as you can and search the woods from top to bottom, I want them found, kill them if you want but bring me the boy with black hair and Arthur alive."

"Will do my lady." the guards said in unison.

"And get rid of that on your way out" she ordered indicating the body on the floor.

Merlin woke up crying and sweating, he had had dreams like that before but never quite as vivid or as horrific, Morgana had killed a man without even thinking, it made him feel sick just at the thought. He lay there in the darkness while an owl swooped on overhead. A tell-tale light in the east showed that it was nearly dawn so he got up and washed in the stream. The coolness of the river against his skin seemed to wash away some of the fear of the dream.

When he came back to camp it was well and truly dawn and the others were stumbling around attempting to properly wake up, all except Arthur of course, Merlin suspected that Arthur wouldn't wake up even if a battle was raging close by. "Up you get." Merlin yelled as he woke the former king, the look on Arthur's face was so comical when he woke that the whole camp burst into laughter.

That day they started to build the shelter. They would use the four biggest bits of wood as corner posts and build around them. First they had to make the bits of wood all the same size, then dig holes in the ground and finally place the wood into the holes. This was easier said than done and though the bulk of the work was done by Merlin using his magic, he still needed the knights to help manoeuvre the logs into place. At one point Gwaine and Percival set down their log for a rest only to place it on Gwaine's foot. Swearing and hopping around the clearing ensured until Merlin healed his broken foot.

Finally they all collapsed into an exhausted heap on the grassy floor, ate a quick tea of leftovers and went straight to sleep and thankfully Merlin did not dream that night.

They spent the rest of the week building the shelter and when it was finished they had a completely watertight shelter in which to sleep, there was room for a fire and a hole in the roof for the smoke to escape and enough space for seven people to comfortably sleep. They were stocking up the store caves with foraged fruit, veg and mushrooms because when winter came they were prepared for the lack of food.

Latter on Gwen asked Arthur, "Please can I borrow your sword?"

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"You want to fight?"

"Yeah."

"Gwen you know I can't allow that it is too dangerous, what if you get hurt, I can't lose you again."

"Don't you think I've been through the same, anyway I have learnt to use a sword."

"What, when?"

"After you died the knights gave me lessons."

"Percival is this true?" the large Knight nodded.

"She isn't half bad as I remember."

Arthur sighed defeated "Very well, it looks like I'm out voted." he gave Gwen his sword and borrowed Gwaine's.

"Wait!" yelled Merlin "I don't want either of you to hurt the other and Gwen doesn't have armour, pass me your swords." he ran his finger down the blade and there was a flash, he then did the same to the other blade, "there I've dulled the blades, I will undo it when you're finished." he then passed the swords back.

Gwen surprised Arthur and had him on the floor within a matter of minutes with her blade to his throat. "Woah, how?" he said speechless.

"Not half bad apparently." laughed Gwen as she helped her husband to his feet.

"Ok I apologise."

"Thank you." said Gwen as Merlin removed the enchantment from the two swords

"But you know you won't be able to use a sword if we are attacked we only have 5."

"Why don't we find the nearest village and see if we can buy some." suggested Gwaine

"That could work but I know you only want to go because you want to find a tavern Gwaine." said Merlin.

"Hey, that's true but even if wasn't a trip to a village would be good."

"Are there any villages nearby?" asked Elyan.

"I'm not sure, there aren't many villages left and I don't know of anywhere we can get swords without questions being asked."

"Well then, I used to be a blacksmith give me a forge and some time, I bet I could do something."

"That won't work; someone would be bound to notice."

"Well what can we do?"

"I think we had better find a village and have a look, we might be able to get more clothes and food."

"Why can't you get them with magic like you did with Gwen's clothes in the tomb?"

"I can't just make them with magic, I have to get them from somewhere, Gwen's clothes were a set from I borrowed from one of the noble ladies at court."

"Can't you just summon other things for the rest of us?"

"No because it would just be suspicious, the lady at court probably won't notice if some of her items of clothing go missing but swords are much harder to misplace so someone would be suspicious if swords disappeared, also Morgana could place a tracking spell on something then could find us."

"I thought magic was meant to be a short cut but there are some way rules it doesn't seem to be worth it."

"Tell me about it, when Uther was alive I had to be very careful."

"I can imagine" said Gwen "remember that time you healed my father and I got the blame, I nearly died, if you showed any sign he would have killed you."

"I'm sorry, that was you Merlin." said Arthur feeling slightly guilty about helping in the persecution of people like his friend.

"Yeah, it was stupid; Gwen nearly lost her life over it."

"I'd have thought that the magical community would be glad of Morgana, she allows magic."

"Some of them are but she persecutes people without magic and most of us don't think that is right and she also allows magic to go unchecked and actively encourages dark magic, creatures such as the questing beast and the griffin roam free in the woods killing innocent people, she does nothing to stop them in fact she executes people by feeding them to Wilderen." they all shuddered at their memories of the Wilderen "she punishes good and rewards evil, taxes are high and not paying is punishable by death." Merlin finished, the others stared horrified; they had known it was bad but they didn't imagine this bad.

"What do we do?" asked Arthur. "We were brought back to help but I don't see how."

They all sat in silence for a while, trying to think of a solution.

"I have an idea." said Merlin

"You seem to be having more and more of them lately."

"Shut up Arthur."

"That's my line!"

"Do you want to hear my idea or not?" Arthur went quite, he still wasn't used to listening to ideas from his manservant, but they seemed to be good ideas.

"Well, Morgana knows you're back but I doubt she wants the general public to know because of the prophecy, if we reveal that we are back to the people it might give them some motivation to help us."

"You're onto something there," said Percival

"Yeah we can't take her on our own but with the weight of the people behind us we may stand a chance."

"But how, I can't exactly walk up to someone and say 'I'm King Arthur who has returned from the dead' - they'd just laugh."

"What if we help them?"

"How?"

"Well we could provide food and shelter to those who need it and money for those who can't pay their taxes." Merlin said thinking of the 11th century hero Robin Hood who had done exactly that until Morgana caught him. Merlin had helped Robin and his Men but in the end it was hopeless.

"How do we get money and food?"

"We can grow food here, build shelters in the villages and for money we can rob the tax carts that pass through the woods, there are several roads that now go right through the woods."

"I'm sort of the king; I can't go round robbing like a common thief, what will the people think."

"We will be giving any money we get straight to those who need it."

Arthur paused for a minute before saying "Ok, but I won't enjoy it." Merlin smiled he knew Arthur was going to enjoy it more than he was letting on, he could never stay away from glory and that was what this was about.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin if you hadn't figured that out already.**

Gwaine yawned; he and Percival had been waiting hidden in the bushes overlooking the main road that cut through the woods like an unnatural river, dividing the landscape in two. They had split into three groups and spread along the road at different intervals, in the other groups were Elyan and Leon and Arthur and Merlin. Though Gwen had begged Arthur to let her come he had refused saying that it was too dangerous because she didn't have a sword, she had replied that Merlin didn't have a sword. "Yes but he has magic and can protect himself well enough." Was the reply.

"I could borrow your sword." said Gwen half-heartedly, she knew she had lost.

"No Gwen." replied Arthur, Merlin gave Gwen a sympathetic glance, he had an idea that may help her not get bored.

He waited for the others to leave before walked over to her and whispering "Here." holding out a book and a list "When we have gone please can you go and find these useful herbs for me?"

"Thank you Merlin." she smiled, she was annoyed at Arthur; he had forgotten that she had lead Camelot for years after his death and could look after herself but Gwen was grateful that Merlin was trying to give her a sense of purpose and she supposed that gathering herbs was important, you never know when they might be needed, especially since winter would be arriving soon.

"Merlin where are you hurry up you clotpole or you'll miss the fun!"

"Coming!" he yelled before giving Gwen a quick smile and disappearing down the passage.

Gwen waited until she was sure they were gone before quietly slipping out of the camp and into the wood but of course no one but Merlin knew she was out of camp and she would have to be careful that she was back in camp when the other arrived back so she couldn't be late.

Gwaine was just about to suggest giving up when the noise of horse's hooves thundered in the distance, kicking up a cloud of dust. He blew his horn and he and Percival raced up a couple of hundred yards until they met Merlin and Arthur, "Hi princess, good to see you."

"Shut up Gwaine." replied Arthur "They aren't supposed to know we're here."

Elyan and Leon were hidden on the other side of the road they were preparing to jump out on the cart when it passed them. They had decided to not use Merlin's magic because Morgana would probably figure out it was Merlin and come searching this part of the wood for them, they wanted the villagers to know who they were before Morgana did; this meant that it would have to be done the old way, with swords. They all sat tensed waiting, then the cart appeared and they raced down the slope, swords drawn towards the road. Arthur felt the familiar rush of adrenaline coursing through his veins at the thought of a good fight. Merlin however was terrified, no matter how many fights he was in, unless he was fighting with magic, he was always as scared as he was the first time even though he had improved with the sword since then.

They formed a line on the road in front of the oncoming cart, surrounded by soldiers to protect it, and it shuddered to a stop in front of them the horse's whinnying. The soldiers slid off their mounts backs, swords drawn and challenging the knights .Merlin could see that they were outnumbered but then again the knights and Arthur were the best fighters of their age, they were in a completely different age now, he didn't have long to think however before a burley soldier was bearing down on him and he was once again fighting for his life. His opponent though he was good was not as good as Merlin who slew him quickly before looking for his next soldier, out of the corner of his eye he saw the other knights fighting admirably, all of them swiftly taking down a large number of soldiers. Arthur was fighting with the leader and he appeared to be winning though it looked quite evenly matched. Suddenly Arthur tripped and the leader of the guards put his sword to his throat. Merlin was about to use magic when someone ran down the opposite slope, they picked up a discarded sword lying on the ground and then held it to the leader's back.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." said Gwen in an ominous tone. The man world around, leaving Arthur, and engaged Gwen in combat. He did not seem to care that she was a woman and neither Merlin nor the knights could get close enough to help for fear of inadvertently hurting Gwen. It turns out they needn't had worried, Gwen fought spectacularly and soon the man fell dead at her feet. They all rushed over and helped Arthur up.

"What did I tell you about staying in camp?" Arthur said angrily, he would not allow Gwen to risk her life for him again, not now, not after he had found her again.

"Lucky for you I don't listen to instructions." Gwen said determinedly, she was not going to let her husband protect her all the time; she could stand up for herself.

"Thank you, but I don't want you doing it again, you shouldn't have to." Arthur's anger was subsiding now but he still wanted to make sure Gwen was safe, he couldn't help thinking back to the time they met Tristan and Isolde; she had died during a fight and he was not going to let that happen to Guinevere.

"Look Arthur, I can fight, sometimes even better than you and if you don't want me to fight I will anyway because you need me."

"We don't we could have handled that."

"Yeah but Merlin would probably have revealed his magic then where would we be, all the other knights were too far away to help." Gwen said victoriously, she knew she had won.

"Alright," said Arthur "But you have to be extra careful, I only want you fighting if there is no other option." Gwen tried to argue but Arthur was not backing down so she reluctantly agreed.

Meanwhile, Merlin was healing the various injuries the knights had sustained during the fight; most of them were minor, a couple of scratches and bruises however Percival had a deep gash on his arm, an occasional hazard when you wore no chainmail on your arms, and Leon had a broken rib both of which were fixed by Merlin's magic.

"Mate, that's some pretty amazing magic." said Gwaine as he watched Percival's arm knit itself back together.

"You've seen me use it before."

"Never healing magic." the other knights nodded in agreement, though they had not seen Merlin openly use his magic in front of them before, they were now realizing that past coincidences involving the servant, such as falling tree branches conveniently knocking out opponents, were probably magical. However Merlin had never healed anyone in front of them, it would be too risky.

"Well, I tried but before I was never really strong enough now I am much stronger, I've had plenty of years to practise after all." They were all silent for a while, Merlin's words evoking painful memories that they had all died hundreds of years ago and where really living in the wrong time now, Merlin had been able to adjust but for the others it would be much harder.

Just then Arthur came over and in true Arthur style said "What are we waiting for, come on get unloading!" they all groaned but began to walk over to the cart and unload the heavy sacks of food and money. , a task which was made easier with Merlin's magic: he would levitate the heaver sacks with magic before transporting them on to a rapidly growing pile on the floor. Eventually, when all the bundles had been unloaded Merlin levitated the whole pile and carried them all back to camp. Even with his now stronger magic he was still unable to sustain the magic to keep all of the sacks in the air while he walked without looking, so it was no surprise when he tripped over a tree root and the floating pile of sacks crashed to the ground. "Merlin you idiot." yelled Arthur exasperatedly.

"Maybe if you helped instead of just standing there it would be quicker." snapped Merlin has he ran around collecting the scattered bundles, the knights rushed to help and they set off again only this time they all carried some of the parcels to lighten the load for Merlin.

They arrived back at camp tired but victorious and delightedly making plans for how they were going to give the villagers the money and food the following day.

"I vote we leave it in the middle of the night." suggested Percival.

"That wouldn't work, they wouldn't know it was us." said Elyan.

"We could leave a note."

"And how many of them can read?"

"True, very few villagers could read and write in our time, I doubt Morgana has improved education?"

"But who would believe that we are the Knights of the Round Table? We hardly look very impressive."

"Speak for yourself." said Gwaine, "I look amazing."

"Yeah right, you don't wash."

"Hey!" this led to a friendly fight between Elyan, Gwaine and Percival with Leon and Arthur shouting encouragements from the side, while Gwen and Merlin rolled their eyes; it was just like it used to be. The fight was won by Percival who picked Gwaine up and then tripped up Elyan. Then they all fell over in fits of hysteria at Elyan and Gwaine's indignant faces as the wrestled to get free.

**The other day, someone reccomended a fanmade script for Merlin season 6 to me. It's done by proper script writers and it's not exactly fanfiction but it's unfortunately not cannon either. Anyway, it's pretty incredible and I'd reccomend giving it a read. There are 13 'episodes' and it explores the thoughts and feelings of the characters better than I ever thought a script could.**

**Here's the link: post/138689580349/merlin-season-6-kingdom-come-script-episode-1**

**If that doesn't work, just search for Merlin Kingdom Come and you should find the Tumblr.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi, welcome to another chapter. Sorry it's been a while. Enjoy!**

**disclaimer: I do not own Merlin - the BBC does. I wish I owned Merlin.**

They decided that they would go to the village and announce themselves to the people while they handed out the supplies so the following day they all got up early, grumbling a lot in Arthur and Gwaine's cases, and made their way to the village carrying the sacks between them. Merlin's magic wasn't going to be used unless necessary because there was a deep distrust of magic users by the common people, especially during Morgana's reign.

It took them a long time to find the village and they could only walk slowly due to the sacks, but the looks of delight on the faces of the people meant the journey was well worth it. They vwalked straight into the village, receiving many strange glares as they did until they came to the square where they dumped the gifts in a pile and the villagers gathered round hungrily. When they were sure they had everyone's attention, Arthur spoke in his commanding voice "I am King Arthur, returned to Albion in its time of need and these," he gestured to the knights and Gwen. "We are the knights of the round table and my wife, Queen Guinevere, we have brought you a gift."

There was silence for a minute before someone yelled "And I'm Morgana queen of Camelot!" there was general amusement from the villagers at this. Arthur laughed as well feeling like he should humour them

"I assure you that I am the resurrected king Arthur of Legends."

"If you are Arthur where is your sword?"

"I-I don't have it." he admitted sheepishly

"Oh, he doesn't have it, likely story!"

"Look!" said Arthur beginning to get angry at these peasants who dared doubt who he was when Merlin interrupted him.

"Sire I have an idea." the warlock said as he walked into the centre of the circle. "I am Emrys, sworn to protect King Arthur." and to prove his point he cupped his hands and a stream of pale blue butterflies poured out and danced around the awed heads of the crowd. At once a change came over the crowd and they all look respectful, Arthur caught murmured whispers along the line of "It really is King Arthur, he has returned!"

"So these people know who you are then?" hissed Arthur

"When Gwen was Queen the prophecy became well known, a fire-side legend, and even after all this time it is known that one day you will return and I will be there to protect you though most people don't believe it."

Gwaine stepped forward "We have brought you these gifts."

"We don't need your charity." said a woman, who seemed to be speaking for the village.

This time Percival spoke "'m sure you don't need charity, this is merely a gift showing our good intentions."

"Well if you put it that way then I guess we will accept, thank you my Lords and Ladies." she bowed respectfully.

"Wait," said Gwen "Please, if it isn't too much bother, may we come and buy food and clothes from here on occasion?" the woman nodded in agreement.

Later on back at camp Arthur asked Merlin "Butterflies Merlin, why?"

"I don't know why they just make me feel happy."

"You're such a girl's petticoat Merlin."

"Hey!" said Merlin and he waved his hand over the fire causing the sparks to rush together to form a perfect replica of a dragon which Arthur now recognised as KIllgarrah.

"I have to admit that's impressive."

"That's one of the few compliments you've ever given me."

"You'd better enjoy it is one of the only ones he's ever going to give you." said Gwaine

The weeks flashed by in a haze from them on; every day was very much the same: get up early, eat leftovers for breakfast, tidy up, do odd jobs such as hunting; if there was a tax cart due that day then they would go and lie in wait for it, deliver to the few local villages, return to camp, have tea and finally tumble into bed. The villagers were very grateful for their gifts and sometimes Gwen and one of the knights would visit and by treats such as the odd cake and a piece of cloth to make bandages or small items of clothing.

Arthur was growing restless with the routine. He wanted to be fighting properly; he was bored of this waiting around. He enjoyed the fights he had with the guards of the tax carts but was itching for something more. Then one day something actually happened.


	16. Chapter 16

**disclaimer: I really don't own Merlin. I think I've made that pretty clear by now.**

Morgana shivered and pulled her warm cloak more securely around her as she flew on the back of her gorgeous white dragon Aithusa, whose scales glittered like snow in the weak early morning sunlight. They had been flying over the forest since dawn scouring it for any sign of her accursed brother and that blasted Emrys, so far they hadn't found out anything about them directly but a group of people had been robbing her tax carts has they passed through the forest and her spies had heard whispered rumours of a returned king and a sorcerer giving out clothes and money as gifts. How dare they interfere with her people? She would tax them how she liked she was their Queen; she would have to come up with something to tarnish Arthur's reputation so he wouldn't be trusted.

They swooped low over one of the villages when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. The commoners were gathered in the village centre around a smaller group of around seven one of which was clearly a woman and another who had raven coloured hair and a blue shirt. "Emrys." she hissed as Aithusa turned around and let out a mighty roar has she breathed fire at the dilapidated wooden houses which immediately caught alight. Morgana laughed at the screams of surprise and fear from down below as she spiralled down to the ground.

Down below Arthur and the knights had been giving out bundles of food to some starving villagers when, out of nowhere a couple of houses caught alight and everyone started to panic, though Merlin put the fires out very fast. A gigantic, snowy, white dragon hurtled towards the ground with a rider dressed in black, cloak fluttering around them in the wind: Aithusa and Morgana.

The villagers screamed and the knight drew their swords. The dragon landed a few feet away from them but strangely didn't breathe fire to incinerate them where they stood much to the annoyance of the rider who was shrieking in a high pitched scream for the dragon to do so. Arthur turned and saw Merlin, an intense look of concentration on his face, staring right into the dragons hard blue eyes. He must be commanding the dragon to not breathe fire, Arthur realised as Morgana dismounted drawing her sword as she did so.

She advanced on them menacingly, eyes blazing in anger, but when she spoke it was in a calm and collected voice, "My dear brother and friends." she spat glaring at them "How nice of you to return, it was getting a bit boring around here actually."

"Our pleasure!" snarled Gwaine

"However, I doubt you will be in this world for very long and this time, not even the mighty Emrys will survive, nor you Gwen, you who stole my rightful crown will never gain it again." finished Morgana.

That did it, Gwaine charged, sword drawn closely followed by Arthur and the rest of the knights but Morgana fought viciously. The knights got a few good blows in but Morgana didn't even appear to notice, "Fools," she shrieked in her high, cold voice "No mortal weapon can harm me or have you all forgotten?" However the knights carried on fighting and even though she was a formidable swordswoman she was heavily outnumbered. The Knights were keeping her too busy to try and use magic so she retreated and called Aithusa who managed to break free from Merlin's enchantment for long enough to fly over and pick her mistress up in her huge eagle like talons and flew away in the direction of Camelot, leaving some very startled villagers and knights behind, staring at the damage she had caused.

"Is everyone ok?" a concerned Gwen asked, luckily most of the knights had escaped unharmed though there was a large cut across Leon's arm and Arthur was limping slightly, Merlin healed them both quickly has Morgana hadn't been using her blade forged in a dragons breathe so they could be healed by magic. Then subdued, they made their way back to camp, barely talking until they got there.

"How the bloody hell did she find us?" shouted Arthur when they eventually made it back to camp.

"Perhaps someone from one of the villages told her knights who we were." suggested Elyan

"We were betrayed."

"By who?" asked Percival

"Probably someone from one of the villages." suggested Merlin

The next day, they sent Percival, Elyan and Gwaine down to the nearest village to see what was happening while Arthur and Leon went hunting. Meanwhile, Merlin and Gwen went to collect firewood.

"Thank you Merlin" said Gwen once they had returned to camp, their arms laden with wood.

"What for?" said a very surprised Merlin

"For bringing Arthur back to me, for looking after him, for saving us from Morgana, I know fighting against a dragon isn't easy for you."

"Oh well, it was my duty I suppose, two sides of the same coin and everything." stammered Merlin.

"Merlin, I seriously mean it, you have been amazing and I can't imagine how hard the years since our deaths have been for you."

"You're back now though, and I'm not going to let history repeat itself." with that Merlin conjured some bright blue butterflies that danced around clearing much to Gwen's delight.

"To think that we all thought magic was evil when all along it could create such beautiful things."

"Magic is a tool, how it is used depends on the user."

"I know, perhaps if someone had found out about Morgana's magic sooner and taught her how to use it; maybe just maybe we wouldn't be in this situation."

"I feel partly responsible," Merlin admitted "I knew about her magic but was too scared to reveal mine to her, if only I had." There was an awkward silence that was soon filled by a commotion coming from the entrance tunnel. Both Merlin and Gwen rushed over and found Leon and Arthur struggling up the fairly steep slope with the carcass of a red deer stag, the promise of some decent food lightened the atmosphere somewhat and they soon found themselves laughing and joking.

But not for long. Soon after Arthur and Leon had arrived back with the stag, a very dejected Elyan, Gwaine and Percival arrived. "What happened?"

"Morgana's knights have been putting up posters saying that anyone found receiving help from us will be executed without trial." said Gwaine glumly

"What!" yelled Arthur enraged, these were his people and his country she had no right to kill innocent people.

"We have to stop then." said Gwen "We can't risk people getting hurt because of us."

"That's not the worst of it." said Elyan "As we were coming back we saw several patrols of her men scouring the woods for us."

"Are you sure they can't find us here Merlin?"

"Positive." said the Warlock, but he was looking a little unsure of himself.

"What do we do now then?"

"We need to form an army so we can actually fight and stand a chance." decided Arthur

"But who will join us, the villagers no longer trust us." said Percival

"I may know some people," said Merlin with a small, secretive smile" But first we need to go to Avalon."


	17. Chapter 17

**I'm actually remembering to update at the moment, so here, have another chapter. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin, I promise.**

"Avalon," said Arthur stunned "As in that lake where you found me and the one you threw my sword in."

"Yes that one."

"Why?"

"Duh, to retrieve your sword."

"I thought you said it was at the bottom of the lake."

"Yes it is."

"Then how do we get it?"

"I have a friend," said Merlin mysteriously.

"Hey did you hear that?" said Arthur sarcastically "Merlin has a friend, who would have guessed."

"Don't be mean." said Guinevere jokingly.

"Anyway, we need to go down to the lake." continued Merlin

"But what about here, we can't just leave this place undefended." said Elyan.

"True, we will have to split into two groups, one that goes down to Avalon, the other stays here and defends camp. Merlin, Gwaine and Gwen you're with me. The others stay here."

"Arthur," said Gwen tentatively "I think I should stay here."

"Gwen why?" said Arthur who was reluctant to leave his wife for long periods of time again.

"Because, you need to reach Avalon at speed and I would only slow you down." She glanced at Merlin who said "I was planning to take KIllgarrah, but he can only take three people at any one time."

Arthur nodded and said "Very well, but if any harm should come to her," he looked at Leon, Percival and Elyan, "I will hold you personally responsible." He then looked at Merlin and Gwaine "We leave at dawn." he then strolled away.

The next morning at first light, the three of them trudged out through the forest and onto a nearby meadow, being careful to avoid Morgana's patrols. On the way, Merlin filled Gwaine in about KIllgarrah so he wouldn't be too surprised when the giant, golden dragon landed right in front of them.

Arthur was silent on the way down to the meadow, he was thinking about all his happy memories of times before which seemed so long ago now. He was also thinking of all the times he had been unfair and unkind to Merlin and the more he thought about it the more ashamed he felt. Why had he been such an arrogant prat? he asked himself over and over again. He regretted so much of what he had done and said, if only he had been more observant.

It didn't take them very long to reach the meadow and the other two stood well back has Merlin shouted in the language of dragons. Has soon as he had finished, the wind picked up and wiped around them and in a matter of seconds the great Dragon landed. Despite the warning Gwaine still jumped and then looked awestruck as the dragon began to speak. "Young warlock, what do you need this time?"

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't urgent but KIllgarrah please can you get us to Avalon?"

"Merlin, I am not a horse." growled the dragon.

"I know and if there was any other way we would take it but,"

"Oh very well." grumbled the dragon "Get on but please be careful." With that Merlin helped Arthur and Gwaine up, and then scrambled up himself.

KIllgarrah flapped his wings once, twice and they were off. Gwaine stared in amazement at the forest rushing beneath them; however Arthur was more terrified and holding onto KIllgarrah for dear life. Merlin just lent back and enjoyed the sensation of the wind in his hair. All too soon for Merlin and Gwaine (though not soon enough if you asked Arthur) KIllgarrah began to descend and landed on the shore of Lake Avalon.

They climbed down and stood somewhat uneasily on the ground has Merlin bid farewell to the massive dragon.

"Thank you KIllgarrah."

"I suppose you want picking up as well then?"

"If you can please that would be great." KIllgarrah then flew off grumbling about "Bloody warlocks" and "Not a horse."

They stood on the shore looking over the clear water for a few minutes before Gwaine said "Are we going to get the princess's sword or what?"

"Yes Merlin, how exactly are we going to get Excalibur?"

"Just watch" replied Merlin has he knelt on the stony ground and placed his hand in the ice cold water and muttered something, his eyes flashing gold has he did so.

Nothing seemed to happen for a few moments then with a surprised gasp from Arthur and Gwaine a figure of a young woman rose from the middle of the water. She seemed to glide across the water to meet them and they could see she was holding a sword. Not just any sword but Arthur's sword Excalibur.

She stopped at the edge of the Lake and held out the sword saying, "For courage." Arthur took the sword with trembling hands.

"Thank you." he stammered, Arthur felt the warmth of the blade which he had not held in so long. He loved the feel of its familiarity, when everything else around him was so unfamiliar these days.

"Thank you Freya" said Merlin

"Woah, hang on, you two know each other?" asked Gwaine

"Erm, yeah it's a long story." replied Merlin awkwardly, he didn't want to tell Arthur about Freya seeing has Arthur had killed her. Fortunately, however both Gwaine and Arthur sensed Merlin didn't want to talk about it and for once didn't press for an answer.

It was during this pause that they noticed that the apparition in the lake hadn't just brought the sword; she was holding out a Hunting horn for Gwaine to take, which he did and as he did so, she said, "Because even strength needs help sometimes." Gwaine was too awestruck to even say thank you, he just stood there in a dumbfounded silence.

Then Freya turned to Merlin and gave him something the others couldn't see and she and Merlin seemed to exchange a few indistinct words they couldn't catch. Finally, she turned and glided back to the centre of the lake and disappeared.

Gwaine turned to Merlin with an extremely confused expression, "Who was that and why did she give me this?"

"She was the Lady of the lake and she gave you a gift that will probably help us at some point, she's good at things like that."

"What did she give you?" asked Arthur

"Er nothing." Lied Merlin

"Oh come on mate, she gave you something important, what was it?" Merlin sighed, annoyed at his inability to lie, and opened his hand to reveal a ruby, the brightest ruby any of them had ever seen, it was threaded on an almost invisible silver chain.

"She gave you a Necklace?" laughed Gwaine

"It's supposed to do something with my magic"

"Merlin, are you sure we can trust her, that these gifts are safe?" asked Arthur cautiously, he was still wary of sorcerers even though he had met quite a few recently.

"Arthur," said Merlin deadly serious now "I trust her more than I trust myself, the gifts are perfectly safe."

"Ok mate I believe you,"

"Merlin who was she? We could tell you two had a connection," interrupted Arthur. Merlin sighed, he knew he was going to have to tell his friends about Freya but he hadn't anticipated that it would be so soon.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." said Gwaine, always more attuned to Merlin's mood than Arthur.

"I want to," replied Merlin, he felt like he needed to get this off his chest. "The lady of the lake, she's called Freya, she was a druid once but she was cursed, she was a Bastet."

"Merlin I-" Arthur began to butt in but a look from Gwaine he shut up.

"She was a Bastet meaning she changed into a strange creature at night that she couldn't control." Merlin continued, "I first met her when she had been captured by a bounty hunter, I freed her and looked after her but I didn't know what she was, one night she killed two people and I suggested we leave but the next night she came across a patrol of guards and they fatally wounded her. I found her and I couldn't leave her to die there so I brought her here and sent her off in a boat." Merlin felt a lump form in his throat has he finished his story and blinked back tears" I loved her, she is the only person I've ever really loved romantically and I only knew her for a handful of days."

"Sorry mate" said Gwaine trying to be comforting.

"Merlin, I'm so, so sorry" Arthur had just realised what he had done, he had killed someone Merlin had loved and Merlin hadn't said anything at the time, Gods Merlin had still waited for Arthur and looked after him even though he was never grateful. Arthur felt ashamed and remorseful for one of the first times in his life.

"Arthur, you didn't know, it wasn't your fault and I don't want you to feel like it was." reassured Merlin though it still pained him that his best friend had killed the person he loved so much.

"Merlin, I killed her how can you forgive me?"

"Wait, you killed her?" said a shocked Gwaine, Arthur nodded "It was when my father was king, people were being killed so we were sent out to kill Bastet, she injured many of my men but in the end," Arthur's voice tailed off, for once he didn't sound proud at winning a fight.

They sat in silence for a while contemplating this new information. Gwaine felt distraught for Merlin and also angry, not at Arthur really, but more at the sheer unfairness of it all; Merlin was so kind and caring but yet he seemed to have the worst luck of anyone he'd ever met. Arthur was feeling guilty, guiltier than he had ever felt in his life and Merlin, well Merlin was remembering Freya, her laugh, her gentleness and her magic.

At last Gwaine got up and said in a deceivingly upbeat tone, "There's no use hanging around here all day, we need to get back to the others." Merlin stood up feeling glad that there was a distraction from his bittersweet memories. "I'll call KIllgarrah but I don't think he will be very happy about this."

"Not the blasted dragon again" groaned Arthur, all guilt momentarily forgotten, "can't we just walk."

Gwaine laughed "Sure you can princess, if you want to be walking for days and running into Morgana's patrols all the time."

"On second thought, I'll take the dragon."

**A combination of Gwaine, Arthur and Merlin is the best.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I don't own Merlin; no one would have died if I did. **

They arrived back in the meadow where they had left off a little while later. Merlin said thank you to the great dragon and then they set off back in the direction of camp. Surprisingly, they didn't meet any patrols until they were fairly near camp and the one they did meet was swiftly dealt with by Merlin and his magic.

When they reached the entrance to camp they were met by a very anxious looking Gwen. "Thank goodness you're back,"

"Gwen what is it?" asked Arthur looking very concerned.

"Elyan was injured by a cross bolt, we have to hurry." she said as she rushed up the access tunnel with the others following close behind.

Elyan was lying on the grass completely still. There was a bolt from a crossbow firmly embedded in his chest. Merlin immediately rushed over, trying to assess the situation. He knelt by Elyan's side and crouched over him, whispering spells as he did. Snakes of black veins crawled slowly up his torso, creeping further outwards with every second.

"Merlin?" Arthur asked anxiously.

"Gwen was right. It's a crossbow wound." said warlock replied. "I should be able to cure it fairly easily." his eyes were worried and Arthur noted this.

"But?" he asked.

"I think the arrow was poisoned." Merlin told him grimly. "This makes it a lot more complicated."

"Can't you just… I don't know. Snap your fingers, say a few words?" Gwen, who was hovering around Merlin, asked. "You can do something, right?"

Merlin glanced at her and winced. "I'm not certain." he said. "I've never been any good at healing spells, and this poison, It's serket poison. A slow and painful death. I should know."

Raising his eyes at that statement but not questioning, Arthur gestured to Elyan's body.

"Merlin, at least try."

"I am trying, you clotpole." Merlin muttered. "Healing isn't my strong point." he turned to Gwen. "How long ago did he get shot?"

"About an hour ago. He came down with a fever about forty five minutes after. I've been trying to tend to him, but I can't do much."

"You did well, Gwen." Merlin assured her. "An hour. That's… well, he's got the correct symptoms. It is definitely serket poison. I'll do what I can, but I'm not sure."

"Not sure of what?" Arthur asked quietly.

Merlin turned to face both of them, taking note of the other knights spread around the camp and all hanging on to his every word. "I'm not sure he'll pull through. He's past the usual point of return with serket poison and although my magic should be able to help, I don't know."

"You're saying he's going to die?" Gwen gasped, her voice quavering.

"I'm sorry, Gwen." Merlin said, looking down at the ground before spinning back to focus on Elyan who was sweating and groaning but still quite still. Merlin sighed, bracing himself.

He lowered himself down and placed his hands on Elyan's chest. His eyes began to fill with specks of gold. "ġehǣle þes mann, beclænse hine se ator an gelésniss hine."

His eyes faded and he looked hopefully at the wound. Although the blood was receding and the flesh was knitting itself back together, the arrow lying discarded on the floor, the black veins still crept steadily up Elyan's torso and Merlin knew they would not take long to reach his heart. Frowning, he tried again. "beclænse hine se ator!"

"Did it work?" Gwen asked timidly. "Is he going to be ok"

"Gwen, I'm sure he'll be fine." Arthur said. He rested his hand on her shoulder. "Merlin?"

There were tears in Merlin's eyes when he finally looked up at them. His voice quivered with unshed tears which threatened to spill out. "He's…" he shook his head and gathered himself. "He's going. There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry."

"No." Gwen's voice was barely there - a ghost whisper carried away with the wind. "No!"

"Gwen - I…" Merlin's response died out.

"Tell me you're joking!" she screamed, battering her closed fists on his chest with a futile desperation. "Tell me you can save him!" tears cascaded freely down her face like a torrent of water from some falls. "Elyan!"

Merlin gently detached her fists from him, letting Arthur take her by the hand. She buried her face into his chest, unable to watch. He placed his hands back on Elyan, preparing himself for one more spell.

"Ġehǣle beorht!"

The clearing held its breath while the wind whistled around them. Elyan gasped where he lay and Gwen let out a sound, a surprised whimper. His eyes met hers for a split second.

"Elyan." Gwen murmured. Her hand unconsciously reached out to where he lay. He lifted his head up to meet her eyes and smiled. It was a small smile and it seemed to cause him pain just to do that, but it was there and Gwen sadly smiled back. Only her eyes betrayed her utter devastation and despair.

Elyan's head slumped back down, and he breathed no more.

The clearing was silent. The knights bowed their heads in respect for their fallen comrade and Gwen clung onto Arthur's shirt in an attempt to feel that something was real, that she wasn't dreaming, something to prove she wasn't having a nightmare..

No one noticed a certain warlock slip away, his face contorted with repulsion and self-loathing.

Merlin ran, he didn't know where he was going and he didn't really care. He just wanted to get away from them, he had let them down; he was worthless; what good was a warlock who couldn't heal his friends? He had failed them all the first time around and now history seemed to be repeating itself. Tears stung his eyes and blurred his vision, he was panting, and he hadn't run for this long in such a long time. Tree branches snagged at his clothes and it wasn't too long before a stray tree root tripped him up.

Merlin tried to stand, but he felt a jarring pain shooting through his leg, his vision swam and he collapsed almost immediately. He lay gasping for breath on the damp ground, the trees mocking him: "He can't even heal one of his best friends" Look how weak he is." They seemed to say in sneering tones.

Merlin had no idea how long he had lain there, he assumed he must have blacked out, because the next thing he knew, he was surrounded by one of Morgana's patrols made up of at least 5 men but from his current position Merlin struggled to count. The apparent leader stepped forward and said in a cruel tone, "It looks like it's our lucky day lads, this is that 'powerful' sorcerer her highness has been looking for, not so powerful now is he, I hope that little friend of yours appreciated our gift?" The other soldiers jeered in agreement. Merlin tried to think but his mind was foggy, not a single spell or incantation came to mind. He was well and truly defenceless.

Gwaine, Arthur and Percival ran through the forest after Merlin, their heavy armour slowing them down so finding Merlin's trail became increasingly difficult. As they ran Arthur silently cursed himself for not thinking about how Merlin would feel about Elyan's death. They ran for what felt like hours which in reality must have only been 15 minutes without any discernible sign that they were on the right track until a shout went up from Gwaine who was slightly further ahead. Gwaine held up a torn piece of blue material, undoubtedly from Merlin's scarf, "He definitely came this way then." they nodded in agreement , the knowledge that they were on the right track renewing their strength.

Eventually, Gwaine stopped behind a small hill and beckoned them to come closer. Arthur glanced over the top of the hill and saw Merlin, obviously in pain, lying flat on his back surrounded by Morgana's men. If Arthur had time to think he would have wondered why Merlin hadn't used magic but there was no time, they drew their weapons and rushed down the slope, engaging Merlin's attackers in a vicious fight. They weren't just fighting for Merlin, they were also fighting for revenge and that, along with the element of surprise meant that very swiftly all 5 soldiers lay dead even though they had outnumbered the knights.

They rushed over to Merlin's side, he was shaking uncontrollably and, Arthur was surprised to see him crying, Merlin tried not to show emotion around Arthur too much for fear of being called a girl. "Merlin, never do that again," yelled Gwaine, "you scared us half to death!"

"My fault" Merlin whispered between sobs "I let him die!"

"Merlin, you did no such thing, you tried your best but nothing could have saved him," said Arthur, slightly surprised that those words had come out of his mouth.

"Mate, don't be so hard on yourself, the princess is right, it's not your fault and we won't let you believe that for one more second"

"We need to get back to camp though, we can talk there, Merlin can you stand?"

He shook his head, his leg still hurt way too much for any sort of pressure to be placed upon it.

"I'll carry him" offered Percival, the giant man bent down and picked up Merlin's limp body without apparent effort and they set off back to camp, though it took a lot longer for them to get back, now they weren't running.

**I said at the beginning that no one would have died if I owned Merlin, and so, if I was writing this story, Elyan would be absolutely fine. (It's actually my friend writing this if you'd forgotten) They wouldn't write the actual death scene so I volunteered. It was heartwrenchingly painful to write, but at the same time, I'm not the hugest fan of Elyan so it didn't come out as well and as depressing as I would have liked. **

**Anyway, I hope you liked that chapter.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hi, sorry it's been a while. Here's some nice fluff with just a little angst because it is illegal to have a Merlin fic without angst. enjoy!**

**disclaimer: I own nothing. Literally nothing.**

Merlin woke up lying on a soft bed of young ferns in a secluded corner of the camp. His had no idea how he had ended up there has his last memorise were being carried by Percival after, after he had failed to save Elyan. His leg was aching like mad but that just served to remind him of his inadequateness.

He felt tears prickling at the edge of his vision, however before he could start crying in earnest he noticed a figure sat not too far away from him, observing him. Arthur.

"Merlin, you're awake"

"How long was I out?" groaned Merlin

"24 hours or so." replied Arthur with a shrug, "we put a splint on your leg but it's a bit rough and ready. We also buried Elyan while you were out, if you want to go and pay your respects you can" finished Arthur, in a mournful, quiet voice.

"I'd like that," replied Merlin in a voice so quiet it was practically a whisper.

Merlin tried to sit up but collapsed immediately back on to the ferns. "Merlin, can I ask you a question?" asked a tentative Arthur; broaching a subject he had been pondering for a while.

"Go ahead, you never normally ask."

"Well, when you were trying to save Elyan, you said you knew what Serket poison was like but how could you possibly know?"

Merlin smiled ruefully, "I was stung by one, a long time ago now"

"But, but how did you survive, I thought no one survived serket venom?"

"It's easier if I show you," said Merlin has he forced himself to sit up and turn around so he was no longer facing Arthur, he then, wincing slightly pulled of his ancient, tattered red shirt revealing his pale back covered in scars.

Arthur gasped in sympathy: there were so many. His heart ached for Merlin and all the pain he must have gone through to receive so many scars. Merlin pointed to a particularly vicious scar; it looked sort of like a very large bee sting, the skin around it was all red and inflamed.

Arthur moved closer "Is that where..?" Merlin nodded,

"Does it still hurt?"

"Not really, I've had it for nearly 2000 years," he replied, still not facing Arthur.

"What happened?"

"It was just after Morgana came back, I followed her and Morgause into the woods, I eavesdropped on them discussing plans to kill your father but they caught me. They tied me up and left me for dead in a Serket infested wood. I managed to hold them off for a while but eventually one got close enough to sting me."

"So how did you survive?"

"I called KIllgarrah, he saved me."

"What about the rest of them?"

"I got most of them protecting you."

"Protecting me from what? I'm pretty sure I can protect myself."

"You have no idea. Arthur, I saved your life so many times in Camelot. I was probably the only magic user in the kingdom who didn't want you dead."

"Why?"

"Why did they want you dead?"

"No why didn't you? You had enough reason too, I was an absolute prat when you first met me, not to mention the fact that one mistake could have killed you." said Arthur puzzled.

"I protected you because you are my friend, we are two sides of the same coin and our destinies are linked, also you weren't that bad later on."

"Thank you Merlin, thank you so much."

Later on Merlin walked up to where Elyan was buried. It was a very beautiful glade in the woods, the light streaming through the trees was golden and the glade seemed to glow in the afternoon light. He walked up to the edge of the upturned earth that marked the grave and knelt down to pay his respects, silent tears raced down his cheeks.

He stayed like that for a few minutes, then began casting about with his mind. Eventually, he found a suitably large piece of rock and brought it to the grave side using magic. He set it at the head of the grave and carved: _Here lies Sir Elyan, knight of the round table and of Camelot, The most loyal of King Arthur's knights. Died in combat._


	20. Chapter 20

**Hi, sorry it's been a while, but here is a new chapter. Hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Merlin. **

Merlin returned to the very subdued camp, Elyan's death had been hard on all of them but it had probably hurt Gwen the most, she had lost her brother once and had now lost him again. Merlin was surprised therefore when, as soon as he reappeared in the camp Gwen rushed over and hugged him.

"Gwen, I'm so sorry." stammered Merlin.

"Merlin you have nothing to be sorry for you tried your best." said Gwen glaring at him "Never let me hear you saying sorry again."

"Sor…" said Merlin before he caught himself.

"I hate to interrupt this beautiful moment but what do we do now?" asked Gwaine, Merlin and Arthur looked at each other. "We need to start building up an army, it's no use the seven of us alone against Morgana, her dragon and the armies of all five kingdoms, we need more people or we don't stand a chance." said Arthur.

"But who, there can't possibly be enough people willing to risk their lives like that." said Leon.

"You'd be surprised, the druids have offered their help and I have 100 magic users that I can contact."

"Woah Merlin, the druids are still around?" asked Percival

"Yeah they live in camps underground; can you believe this, but Merlin is some sort of lord for them, they call him Emrys."

"Arthur we know, after you… you know we made peace with the druids, they told us all about the prophecy," said Percival.

"Oh"

"Anyway, how do meet them, this place is crawling with guards remember."

"Ah there might be a solution there," said Merlin getting to his feet and leading them to one of the many caves that littered the walls of the Garden.

"Merlin we've explored these tunnels before there's nothing here," moaned Arthur, though he and Merlin had discussed raising an army; they had never talked about how they would ever meet their troops.

"When we first explored the caves I thought there was something odd about this one, I forgot about it until a few days ago, when I found this_. Forbearan_" he muttered and a flame appeared it his palm but it didn't burn Merlin, it only caused a pleasant tickling sensation. He let the light fall on some words carved into the wall.

"We didn't notice this when we first explored this cave but I came back and checked more thoroughly."

"What does it say?" asked Gwen eagerly.

"One path leads to many, I think."

"But this cave ends in a wall." said Leon

"I think it's an illusion," replied Merlin, who then with a wave of his hand and a flash of gold quickly got rid of the illusion. To the others it seemed has if the cave had suddenly elongated and it had a nauseating effect. Gwen felt so dizzy she nearly fell over and Gwaine actually did. Lucky the effect didn't last long and they were all soon looking down a long passageway leading away into darkness.

"Where does it go then Merlin," asked Arthur "It could end up in the Camelot dungeons for all we know."

"It leads to the druid caves at least I'm pretty sure it does."

"You're pretty sure, we could be walking into a trap then?" questioned Leon.

"Aw Leon, that's all part of the fun mate." replied Gwaine

"I want to explore it, if it doesn't lead to the druid camps, there would be another entrance into camp that possible enemies could use," reasoned Percival

"Right we'll go down," said Arthur picking up one of the torches they had left near the entrance to the cave, "Merlin, if you would." Merlin lit the torches and they set off. Arthur in front followed by Gwen. After Gwen came Merlin and Gwaine then Leon and Percival bringing up the rear. As they trudged through the cobwebbed filled, musty smelling tunnel, Merlin mused over how Arthurs reaction to magic had changed. He was becoming less hesitant in using it and was even started to respect those who practiced magic. Merlin only hoped that he would keep broadening his mind to magic and when Arthur became king again he would regard magic with the same respect as Guinevere had during her reign.

The tunnel sloped gently downwards and Merlin felt himself relax when he felt the familiar residue of magic that was definitely druid magic. Unlike Morgana's magic which felt cold, dangerous and dark and KIllgarrah's magic which felt ancient and mysterious, druids magic usually felt warm and inviting.

Gwaine, Percival, Leon and Gwen were incredibly curious about what the druid cavern would be like. During her reign Gwen had openly invited the druids into Camelot and had held many meetings with their leaders but she had never truly understood them. Gwaine and Percival had both met druids during their years of traveling before they were knights however most of these meetings were hostile. Leon had the best experience of druids has they had literally brought him back to life, since then he had researched them and probably knew the most about them after Merlin.

It wasn't too long before the delicious smell of roasting venison and the chatter of many voices wafted up the tunnel towards them and soon they walked out into a massive cave well lit by candles suspended from the cavern ceiling by what had to be magic. Charms and dream catchers were hung all over the walls and in the centre were the tents.

They were greeted by a large crowd of brightly dressed druids, they fell silence has the six visitors approached.

Then one child yelled "Its lord Emrys, he's returned!" and the crowd knelt apart from one woman who Gwen deduced was the leader. She had a cheerful face and long blonde hair that was braided down her back. She said, in a voice like running water, "Merlin, we did not expect to see you again so soon, nor you King Arthur, I assume your quest was successful,"

"Yes it was. Alba, this is Sir Gwaine, Sir Percival, Sir Leon and Guinevere, more commonly known as Gwen."

"Nice to meet you," said Alba holding out her hand for them to shake.

"Nice to meet you too." said Gwen has she shook Alba's hand, she was glad to finally have another woman to talk to.

The other knights all shook her hand, Arthur, not being oblivious for once, noticed that Gwaine blushed has he did so and made a mental note to see if anything developed between them.

Alba then said "I know you haven't come for a polite visit Merlin, - you never do - but whatever it is can wait, dinner is nearly ready and you all look famished."

"Thank you Alba." replied Arthur,

"Typical prat, always thinking about his stomach." joked Merlin and the other all laughed, Arthur blushed and mumbled something that sounded like "Do not."

"He's lost a few pounds since he came back to life," noted Gwaine

"I am not fat!" yelled Arthur indignantly.

"Of course you aren't love" said Gwen, her and Arthur were holding hands as they followed Alba to the large, roaring camp fire in the centre of the cave, on which several young deer were roasting. Terrowin stood by the fire ready to welcome them and invited them to sit on the wooden logs and eat.

As they ate, the venison was delicious; the druid children told stories about Emrys and the dragon as well as many of the legends that had sprung up around Arthur, Gwen and the Knights since their deaths. The stories were very farfetched and Merlin noted that they would do nothing to lessen the prat's ego but were, nevertheless, very much enjoyable. Gwen blushed whenever it was mentioned how great a Queen she was. Leon was praised for being a friend to the druids, Percival for his strength and kindness and Gwaine for his loyalty.

After they finished eating, Alba beckoned them all into her tent. Inside, there were sheep skin rugs on the floor and a large writing desk in the centre, which Alba sat behind.

"Emrys, I know you and your friends did not just come on a social visit, so why is it you came?"

"Thank you for your hospitality but you are, as usual, right, we came on an urgent errand for help," And with that he launched into an account of all that had happened since they had last seen the druids, aided in the appropriate places by the others.


End file.
